Kundalini Splendor

The Prisoner

It was dark in the cave.
And silence carved
from darkness.

We were bound there,
tied so that we could
not see
either right nor left,
but only straight ahead,
where the images moved
before us on the wall,
black silhouettes
of people, implements,
things.

We watched in fascination,
for these were our reality,
our accepted truths.

Then I escaped
and entered
another world,
a place where light dazzled
and colors blazed
and palpable humans
walked to and fro,
casting shadows as they went.
I saw that we below
were victims of deceit,
mistaking such shadows
for the real,
falsehood for truth.

I returned below
to share my happy
news with my still imprisoned
fellows, eager to set them free at last.

But they would have none,
denounced me as a liar,
a charlatan bearing false goods.
And sent me away.

Now I live in this other realm,
bathed in light and air.
But sometimes I wonder
if this too is a cave of sorts,
if there are yet other places
with other truths,
other realities waiting
to be found,
perhaps an endless procession
of spheres within spheres,
each more radiant,
more filled with beauty and love
than the last.

Dorothy Walters
April 10,  2019

(photo by Jack Michaud)


(Note:  Plato wrote a famous allegory in which he described those who sit in a cave and are deluded
by shadows moving on the opposing wall, which the onlookers mistake for real beings.  Actually these are the false images cast by humans as they come and go in front of the fires outside.  This myth thus depicts the illusions that the many fall prey to, mistaking spurious images and mundane goals for
the priceless treasures of the mind.
This poem suggests that even such realizations are insufficient.  Plato, dedicated to the pursuit of rational discovery, omits the aspects of feeling, of  subjective bliss, of spiritual union with source.
Thus his is a patriarchal (mental) rather than a matriarchal (felt) approach.  And who knows, there may be worlds beyond worlds awaiting discovery even by our most evolved souls.)