Winter Solstice: The Return Of The Light And The Redemption Of Darkness Poem by Joan Woodbridge

Light follows darkness as darkness light:
the stunned sun halts mid-dance
Shiva Nataraj
motionless
balancing lightly the luminous and tenebrous
exhorting us again to brave the redeeming depth of the shadow

Beyond the celebrated land of light
that seems so divinely uplifting
that dabbles in the windfall waters of virtue
and dallies in the garden of diversion...
we find
the locus of the Shadow
that disquieting darkness
the vision that threatens to char the sockets of the eyes

We know the shadow by our avoidance
the nimble step
the sideward glance
the drowsy daydream
the sidestepped fantasy
the impulse denied
or not

We know it by our accidents of speech
the slip of the tongue
the telltale blush
and the complaints of friends

We know it by our nightly dreams
that render such faithful and unswerving service
to the shadow.

Go then
taking as your virtue
both courage and impeccability
swords against fear and pride

That from which we turn away grows stronger