The  Darkness  Around  Us  Is  Deep

A  Ritual  To  Read  To  Each  Other

William  Stafford

If you don't know the kind of person I am

and I don't know the kind of person you are

a pattern that others made may prevail in the world

and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,

a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break

sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood

storming out to play through the broken dike.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,

but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,

I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty

to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,

a remote important region in all who talk:

though we could fool each other, we should consider—

lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,

or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;

the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —

should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

YouTube Video

Robert Bly reads William Stafford

If  We  Will Recall

Breathing deeply with the earth

as this day of remembrance

rises with the sun,

wondering if we will recall 

the presence with us 

so short a time,

calling us from the tomb

into the garden

of the present moment.

Don  Hynes  April 19, 2019

donhynes.com/blog

One  Who  Walks  Within

Don  Hynes  April 14, 2019

Born to wonder,
our original memory
a secret code
of symbols and runes
letting darkness nurture,
dreams become talisman.
Emissaries of an ancient light,
born from the mother
on a rushing tide
of blood and water,
we find ourselves
naked and shivering
on an unknown shore.
We learn the stories,
speak the language
until one day the body
within the body
emerges from its chrysalis.
Stones rise, seas lift,
the veil of mystery rents
and the silence of the ages
opens once more
to the one who walks within.

donhynes.com/blog