Out of the Cave

By Joyce Sutphen

When you have been

at war with yourself for so many years that you have forgotten why, when you have been driving for hours and only gradually begin to realize that you have lost the way, when you have cut hastily into the fabric, when you have signed papers in distraction, when it has been centuries since you watched the sun set or the rain fall, and the clouds, drifting overhead, pass as flat as anything on a postcard; when, in the midst of these everyday nightmares, you understand that you could wake up, you could turn and go back to the last thing you remember doing with your whole heart: that passionate kiss, the brilliant drop of love rolling along the tongue of a green leaf, then you wake, you stumble from your cave, blinking in the sun, naming every shadow as it slips.

Poem by Joyce Sutphen Straight Out of View, © Beacon Press, 1995

The specifics of when and how Joyce Stephen‘s words found me have now faded. It was several years ago, whilst in the throes of some great shattering that urged me to shake off more dull grogginess of human conditioning…not a singular event, to be sure.

Flashes of inspired insight precede long stretches of moment-to-moment practice before new ways of being sink in and take root. First lightning, then rain…and more rain…and finally, a new green shoot.

I pass on this stirring poem with blessings for your own journey…

Photo Copyright : 吴 俊杰