Not that midnight is so very dark
in my dimly lighted sleepless room,
white sheets on my bed
even whiter than what’s so thoroughly painted
around me;
not that darkness is so bleak or fearsome,
full of bad dreams that need an ending
or even the pain one suffers alone;
no, none of these realities
describe one’s ailing self
before the unseen impalpable strength
inside one’s soul and everywhere within,
where blackness is a promise of gentle rest,
a way of being whole.
A retired associate professor of English at Hawaii Pacific University, Patrice M. Wilson recently spent 5 years of study as a novice in the cloistered Carmelite monastery in Kaneohe, Hawaii. Her full-length poetry book--Hues of Darkness, Hues of Light--was published in 2013 by eLectio Publishing. She has three poetry chapbooks with Finishing Line Press: When All Else Falters; On Neither Side; and A Different Current. Her poems have been published in several journals.