Discovering Darkness in the Light: Poems

By Dana DeSimon

Light in the darknessand darkness in the light.

From the gloom of dark shadows to the shimmer of sunlight, and back again. From the explosions of passion, to the quiet, tender glow of serenity.From despair and agony, to hope and love.From sorrow and anguish, back once again, to a world of love and hope; awakening to a fresh and joyful beginning.From indescribable beauty, to incomprehensible ugliness and pain; and then onward, to a new vision of breathtaking beauty, born anew.You are invited to experience the world in a way that you may never have seen or felt before.

Stimulate the mind and the senses.

Experience a different sort of poetry book.

How can this be? Read ontaste and see. Learn about all these things and yesstill more.

A few things that were never quite envisioned before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 24, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440162374

Dana DeSimon

Dana DeSimon was born and lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Messiah College with a BA in Behavioral Sciences and earned a Master of Planning from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. Writing this book has been, perhaps, the most satisfying accomplishment of his life.

Book preview

Discovering

Darkness

in the Light

18317.jpg 18318.jpg 18319.jpg

Poems

Dana DeSimon

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

Discovering Darkness in the Light

Poems

Copyright © 2010 Dana DeSimon

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this work are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4401-6238-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4401-6236-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4401-6237-4 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 4/12/2012

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Darkness 

My Dark Hole

Where Did They Go?

An Evening of Loneliness

The Winter of the Soul

Where Art Thou Tonight?

The Pain of Winter Wind

A Pain of the Soul

Beast of the Graveyard

Light and Chains

The Mission

Proletarian Memories: And a Question

Out of Sync . . .

An American Tragedy

Macbeth, Revisited

The Outcast, Forever

Light in the Darkness 

A Lament

Fragments of a Slow Death

The Grieving Winter

A Quivering Hand

A Prayer of a Lonely Soul

A Wind in the Darkness

The Shadows

The Light

Murky Darkness

Searching the Darkness

Yearning in the Dark

Cries in the Dark

Yearning of the Blood

The Dark Dream

Is It a Dream . . . ? 

Reflections in a Winter Night

The Enclosure

A Light Yet Bleeding

The Sojourner

Darkness Ablaze

A New Beginning

The Communion

The One Thing Missing?

Hamlet, Revisited

A Farewell to Ariel (The Tempest by Shakespeare)

The Path of Fire and Angels

A Metamorphosis

Billows in the Darkness

Light 

Summer Evening

October Splendor

Beauty

In Glory

An Ode to Christina Rossetti

To Dawn

To Janet: An Appreciation

The Dance

The Dance: An Encore

The Dance: Encore II

Darkness in the Light 

Darkness in the Light

Bittersweet Sorrow

Closing Night

Thoughts: On the Poet

Starry Night

A Tiny Star

Clutching Fire

A Summer Memory

Images

Darkness in the Light:

A Conversation with a Visitor from Heaven

Love and Sorrow 

A Farewell Gift

A Fragment of Communication

Death of a Dancing Rainbow

The Wings of Love Set Free

The Tender Warmth of Love

A Bittersweet Departing

A Remembrance in Death

An Ode to a Young Woman Whose Children Died in Oklahoma City

Good-bye, Grandmom

The Wastelands 

The Wastelands of Life

A Vision

A Vision Lingers On

I See a Wasteland

The Song of Lucifer

The Impaired

The Impaired: A New Legend

Fear

A New Beginning 

The Community Goodwill Tree: A Fable

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

Inspiration for these poems has come from a variety of sources, sometimes something as mundane as looking out on a dark night. Nevertheless, there were times when I was inspired by a specific literary source. These sources varied. Generally, I have tried to be clear about them and have alluded to them in the titles or the poems themselves.

However, I would like to specifically acknowledge the oftentimes brilliant Christian writer and apologist C. S. Lewis—in particular, his idea (in his book, Mere Christianity, as well as in other places) that our recognition of a standard of good, even in the midst of evil, does indeed point to the reality of goodness, and ultimately, of God. He has also hinted at or suggested the possibility of pleasures (of a sort) in Hell, as well as blessed pains in Heaven—for example, in The Problem of Pain and The Screwtape Letters. In addition, his idea concerning the creation of limitations—in particular, the establishment of Hell itself, and the constraints of Hell—as being a tourniquet to quell even greater bleeding and suffering, is one that I have tried to acknowledge in a footnote in the poem, The Impaired. The reference is from his book, The Pilgrim’s Regress.

Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge another author, Peter Kreeft (whose book, Every Thing You Ever Wanted To Know About Heaven, is cited and quoted in my introduction). He also talks about the importance of placing limits on the power of the sinful man—for our own present good—in the above mentioned book. Mr. Kreeft asserts that, As long as we are not content with our weakness, we cannot be given power (p. 113). Certainly I would encourage the reader to go to the original sources to learn more.

I also want to give an acknowledgment to a modern poet named Karen Volkman, whose very creative and beautiful poem, called Daffodils (from a book titled Crash’s Law), helped to instill an idea and inspire my own poem, The Communion.

In addition, I want to take this opportunity to thank another poet and author, E. Tara Scurry, who was very kind and gracious in offering me advice about the publishing and promotion of my book. I deeply appreciate her warmth, her wise and welcoming input, and her encouragement.

I also want to thank or acknowledge all of my friends, several of whom are now deceased, who provided encouragement and support.

Finally, I want to thank my mother. I deeply appreciate her support, encouragement, and love.

Introduction

What is it like to be confronted by a God that you desperately do not want to believe in, and therefore vehemently reject—and yet, you are still painfully aware of the confrontation? What is it like, especially when you are a prominent atheist?

A Christian writer named Peter Kreeft, in a book titled Every Thing You Ever Wanted To Know About Heaven, relates a story about the well-known French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Peter Kreeft tells his readers that Sartre, who was an inveterate atheist, reported in his (Sartre’s) autobiography, that he felt the presence of God ‘only once’ and ‘flew into a rage  . . . whirled about  . . . blasphemed  . . . [until] He never looked at me again.’¹

This anecdote provided inspiration for one of my poems, The Dark Dream (although the poem can also be seen at least in part as a comment on certain strains of modern philosophy in general). The story about Sartre, however, also raises a question: Since Sartre didn’t believe in God, whom or what was he blaspheming? Could it be that—just for an instant—he did somehow believe after all? Obviously, a person choosing to reject God needs a God to reject.

And so it is. One wonders if non-believers always disbelieve, or rather, choose sometimes to reject God instead.

Nevertheless, there may be many people who genuinely struggle with the seeming absence of God, even though they may desire and truly want to believe in His presence—and (perhaps) even the presence of angels. After all, we cannot see God or angels. How can we know that they are there? But then, what kind of a world do we live in if we are truly Godless?

What would it say about us?

How could we fill the emptiness, the barrenness of the cosmos—but also, the emptiness of the human soul?

I hope that, to some extent, and at least in some small way, the following collection of poems, which has been years in the making, speaks to a few of the questions of faith and life, the mysteries of our lives, and the hope and presence of God. However, although I am a (frequently struggling) Christian, the poems are not all poems of faith. Some are poems of love; others are of despondency. Some were created in the depth of gloom and darkness; some were created (or at least inspired) in a rhapsody of light, and hope, and vigor, and allurement. Nevertheless, many are, indeed, poems of struggle. I would hope that all of them somehow address the broad spectrum of human experience, things that all of us may share; and that some of them will succeed in sharing just a bit of my own life, some serious thoughts (not necessarily original thoughts), as well as some feelings and, occasionally, personal experiences.

The theme of darkness and light is woven into many of the poems, as the reader can probably guess from the title of the book. I believe that we can sometimes find darkness in light, just as we can find light in darkness.    

Indeed, one thing that I might comment upon is the seeming confluence of joy and sorrow in some of the poems. I try, and have tried, to consider this matter seriously. And for me it has not been, and is not, a matter of thought alone, but also a matter of feeling. I suppose that, perhaps, most of us who feel deeply may have at some time noticed how joy and sorrow may at certain moments mingle in such a way that it may be difficult to describe precisely, or even fully understand, what one is feeling. And there is the mystery of why we may enjoy a great tragedy on stage—why we may be moved to tears, and yet feel a certain sort of pleasure or satisfaction, or perhaps even some sort of joy in the experience of it. True, it is only a story, but it is still a story of suffering. And why might we cry at weddings, or emotional reunions, or stories of seemingly miraculous healing after profound sicknesses? Such