Makes me think

"You must be able to bear your sorrow; even if it seems to crush you. You will be able to stand up again, for human beings are strong, and your sorrow must become an integral part of yourself; you must not run away from it.
Do not relieve your feelings through hatred. If you reserve the space inside of you for hatred and thoughts of revenge, then sorrow will never cease in this world.Give your sorrow all the space and shelter in yourself that is its due, for if everyone bears grief honestly and courageously then the sorrow that now fills this world will abate.
If you give sorrow the space it demands, you may truly say; life is beautiful and so rich. So beautiful and so rich it makes you want to believe in God."

-Diary of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jew who was killed in Auschwitz (1943)

The line is long and dark
Slowly and gracefully
It slithers and snakes
To a sunset of freedom

It holds my redemption
The end to awakening
Sweet oblivion
Embrace me tonight

Call me a coward
The words will be lost
Your understanding is fleeting
My reality complete

Fade it away
It's worthless here
Even the absence
Holds no meaning

Today

Before my eyes
They shattered
My hopes, my dreams
Pretty packages
And in their wake
Remains fear
And a Sadness so black
I'll never rise again

Keep it together
Their jagged edges hurt
It cuts not my hands
But my heart instead
And these wounds
Will bleed for eternity

So-
Fear, blood
And a profound sadness
Are all that remain
My punishment? perhaps
But I lack the strength
To fight anymore

11-3-05