A Battle

Every once a while a piece of paper falls out from a book and remind me of the journey I’ve been taking. Here is a poem I wrote in 1996 about a stage in that journey.

Fear calls me to return

Its voice is reasonable, laden with facts

Holding a part of truth

It states with bold familiarity

What’s been left behind is here

Fear promised its return

The bright thought darts in and out

I scamper within

It holds me safe then forms a shield around me

Fear stands outside assuming its well known shapes

Its arms are warm it pleads to me

I know those arms well

In the beginning they were soft

In the beginning they seem to protect

But they strangle, they make me tremble

I stand inside the lighted shield of brightness and beckon

Fear stiffens; it wants me to come outside

I and my light are solid

Fear is but a shadow

Resolution has joined me in the light

It gently reminds me of myself.

I grow strong and watch as fear begins to crumble, turning ugly

Threatening my safety, helpless to change

Come - it is not longer a plea

Fear must obey its master’s voice

Come – it shifts, it knows

Once in the light it cannot be

Come; I say with bold and joy

Fear comes it has no choice

It brushes the light and trembles

With peace and love I draw fear in

It is belting, losing its shape

Its form not as solid as I’d believed

The dissolution leaves nothing

Thoughts are things to be reshaped

And fear was just a thought

Its life it would sustain from my own

In love’s bright presence fear is gone

I am, and fear is not.