Night is Our Imagination

Wave After Wave
—Poems by Nick LeForce, Sacramento, CA
—Photos by Katy Brown, Davis, CA

PINHOLES

Words are like pinholes
in the ceiling.
Those who believe
will see them as stars.
They become
constellated archetypes,
mythic battles
and epic love stories
through the window
of the heart.
They have secret powers
unknown even
to the one who gives light
because we are the night
to each other
and the night
is our imagination.

Those who are skilled
at reading the stars
may use them to navigate life.
Others only marvel
at the wonder of it all.
So often, we rarely even notice
except on starless nights
when we stand
next to nothingness
and bear the presence
of the infinite;
those are the moments when
we speak our own truth
and fill the holes
with our own light
praying our words
will then become
the stars we need
to navigate our lives.

 Wind Water Rock

SEIZING LIFE

An elderly couple,
both grey-haired
and bent-backed,
each with canes
and shuffling
in the slow,
deliberate way
of those
who have grown
uncertain
in their bodies,
walk gingerly
by the roadside
on California Hwy 1
somewhere near Big Sur.

I watch them
step off the road
onto a steep incline
that descends
a good 500 feet
toward a sun-gleaming
sandy beach below.

I smile
at the courage
of this
adventurous pair
who do not let feebleness
prevent them
from seizing life.

 White Seal on Rock

NAKED, BALD, AND UNASHAMED

Naked, bald, and unashamed,
the mountains of Monterrey, Mexico,
hold no pretense
baring treeless peaks without apology.

They speak the ancient tongue
of earth and rock,
in the slow way of mountains,
no more than a single word per day.
And if you come, each day,
you can see the summit’s
subtle shifting colors
and you will begin to feel
something shifting inside of you.

It may take weeks
to hear a single sentence.
But it is worth it.

Even though
you may have journeyed
a thousand miles
to see the wise ones,
who sit in profound meditation,
you must still yourself and wait,
with practiced patience,
to hear the riddled secrets
and mystic wisdom—
the kind of truth
that can only be expressed
with intricate simplicity,
like the mountains of Monterrey.

 Underwater Rock

DÉJÀ VU

The opposite of déjà vu
is to refuse
to experience now
what you will never
experience again.

It is easy to refuse
to draw closed the curtains
lock up the house
turn out the lights

but it is hard
to live in the dark
of your own being.

We crave the very thing we refuse.

Sometimes,
in the language of love,
to turn away
means
“come here.”

You know this.

You have been here before.

 Up the Windy Coast

DIALOGUE IN THE DARK

The sighted miss
what the blind see.
The eyes of the heart
require no light
to see truth and beauty.

We all know the courage it takes,
with or without eyes,
to speak out in the dark;
to find the patience,
and take the time to practice,
the art of true listening.

It’s only through
a dialogue in the dark
that we see each other clearly.

The dark gives permission
to drop our pretense;
it allows us
to lose the world
and find ourselves.

The dark provides
space enough for each of us—
those who live from the eyes
and those who live from the ears,
and those who live by touch
stand on equal ground.

So, don’t be fooled
by those who say,
“Seeing is believing.”
Genuine faith
comes from the heart
and not the eyes.

The dark forgives
what the light
will not let go.

And no secret
is too deep
or too dangerous
for the dark.
So, let us stop
taking sides.
Let us stop
seeing our differences.

Let us, instead,
start our dialogue in the dark
by shedding the world
we have lived in,
the world
that has limited us;
by sanctifying the space
we share together;
and by looking
at each other
with the eyes of the heart.

Then we will truly see,
no matter how big our differences
or how great our disabilities,
the truth and beauty
that shines in each of us.

(Inspired by the team-building and diversity class from Andreas Heinecke, which is taught by the blind for sighted people, and is titled, “Dialogues in the Dark.”)

_____________________

Today’s LittleNip:

Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

--Franz Kafka

_____________________

Many thanks to Nick LeForce for today’s fine poems, and to Katy Brown for her beautiful photos from the Ft. Bragg region! Nick's work today is from his second book of poetry, Endless Horizon, available on Amazon and also as an audio book on his website: www.nickleforce.com/.

—Medusa

 "Naked, Bald, and Unashamed"

—Photo by Katy Brown
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