SWEET DARKNESS BY DAVID WHYTE

When your eyes are tired

the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone

no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark

where the night has eyes

to recognize its own.

There you can be sure

you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb

tonight.

The night will give you a horizon

further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.

the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds

except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet

confinement of your aloneness

to learn

Anything or anyone

that does not bring you alive

Is too small for you.

© David Whyte

Copyrighted material.

• Write a letter to darkness, beginning, Sweet Darkness. Reflect on all the myriad ways darkness offers lessons and insights. Tell darkness what is in your heart.

• Write an Alpha poem. Begin by writing DARKNESS vertically down the page. Each letter begins a new line.

• How will you celebrate the shift from darkness toward the light? How will you honor this remarkable moment?