The Lonely Places

It is in the lonely places we find ourselves,
the truth of us,
the reasons we hang on like the last autumn leaf,
or the reasons we let go and fly into oblivion.

It is in the lonely places we discover
what we believe, and why,
We discover more than our weakness –
those we know already,
too often reminded by the cold wind
of an angry world,
but our possibilities
and the things we yearn for.

It is in the quiet places,
where we can no longer ignore the truth,
where there is no place to hide,
and no one to declare us as anything but
what we are,
that find the dark weeping holes in our soul,

We avoid them, these lonely places.
Flee them. Ignore them, Press them
into boxes and closets, afraid of them
like a child in the night, unaware
that they are not monsters,
but the beginning of light.

About this poem

Often, we never really know our truths because we refuse to sit with them, alone. Our lives stay busy, too busy.

Tom