Falling is easy.
Darkness is easy.
The pull of gravity.
That moment when, just past balance,
when nothing, at least nothing important
is in your control any longer
and the dance is over.

You fall and things break.
Often you.
And then it is time to get up
and walk up the stairs
with your bumps and bruises
and if you have been particularly unlucky,
your scars.

And then it is time to get up
and climb the stairs,
the same ones you climbed before the fall.
Climb the stairs a little more carefully.
And certainly it takes more time than the fall.
There is very little dancing involved,
at least not at first.
More time and a bit more courage,
because you are never the same after the fall.
More broken. And at the same time,
more determined.

About this poem

A poem about coming back from the falls in our lives, whatever they may be. Love. Faith. Any place we have fallen and gotten up and made ourselves move forward. Falling is a moment. Getting up and moving forward is a decision.

The picture was taken at the Hancock Shaker VIlliage in Hancock Mass.

Tom