Go Gently Into the Night
A Poem
Go gently into the night,
for it is sensitive to your flight.
Listen yourself into presence and
hear the footsteps of your making.
Too loud and the darkness
cowers into itself.
Be gentle. Let the blackness of the night
feel free to open to celestial skies,
to birth a new nursery of starlight.
Slowly, gently,
breathe the light into being.
Be gentle, let the night release
its hidden joys,
raise goosebumps on your arms.
The night is young, tender,
sensitive to your every breath,
your every movement.
Be gentle, let it wrap its arms
around you, hold you,
give you peace.
Go gently into the night,
for the night is not your enemy,
it is not your foe,
someone or something to fear.
The deep black of night is as
kind as the brilliant light of day
in its giving, in its taking.
Be gentle. Allow the dark of night
to soothe your tired, beleaguered eyes,
to let your spirit rest
in the cocoon of emptiness.
The dark is as necessary as the light
to the balance of your life,
each a counter to the other.
Be gentle, let it smooth
the edges wrought by day.
Let it wrap its arms
around you, hold you,
give you peace.
This poem was inspired by Nathan Spoon’s “A Candle in the Night,” and its focus on tenderness. It was later pointed out to me that it reminded people of Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” but was just the opposite in sentiment. I think there is some truth to that comment.
