'It was less of a walk than a stutter / of feet edging across the floor / as if she was navigating the rim / of a volcano.' Photo: Cristian Newman / Unsplash.
Art thou in darkness?
'Art thou in darkness?' by Dana Littlepage Smith
Mind it not, for if thou doest it will fill thee more, but stand still and act not, and wait in patience till Light arises out of Darkness – James Nayler
It was less of a walk than a stutter
of feet edging across the floor
as if she was navigating the rim
of a volcano. At eighty, she needed
to proceed alone, without walker
or cane – showing that her age
was not her defining – I watched
as the flint of her will found its fire
and she moved on her own
with a grace so sudden
it surprised her. After which,
she took my hand.
Then it began, the singing…
We made it across the room
to the door of the meeting
where we stood,
waiting and listening to another
woman’s witness of notes
bone-naked and floating.
I put my head to the crack
of my yearning, my almost
not hearing. An unseen
woman’s witness made sweeter
by its distance. By the fact
that we needed to lean
Into our deepest attention
where the gift was waiting
in darkness, and not in darkness.
