The Greatest Lesson

Windows.
Everywhere you go, you are drawn to them.
No matter how light or how dark your interior is,
you are drawn to them.
Their light. Their promise of something brighter.

There was a time you lived in darkness
and the other side of windows seemed
impossible.
A light unattainable.

They taunted you. Tortured you.
You cried a lot. At times you railed
against the darkness, sure the light
was for others not you. You were too broken

to understand the windows were not prison,
but promise. And that no one need stay
in the darkness our lives have created around us.
There are ways out.

It is the greatest lesson. No matter what
there are ways out. Into the light.
Into the fresh air. And windows
are messengers, nothing more.

About this poem

The darkest times of my life taught me the greatest and most important lesson of my life: There is always a way out of darkness, if we are willing to do the work. A poem about depression. About faith. About Hope. Poetry is never about one thing.

This picture goes back to the darkest of my times. But I and my camera are still attracted to windows.

Tom