The Shadow of a Great brightness

There – not there!

Skittering at the edge of sight,

The shadow of a great brightness,

Wrenching my tear-filled eyes.

Have I seen truly?

Have I seen at all?

Ever, at all?

Moments of such illumination

My earth-sense doubts them real.

The shadow of a great brightness:

And, in our moon-struck folly,

We dare not whisper what we see,

Fearing the rolling of each other’s eyes,

Fearing the desecration of self-doubt,

Fearing, in fact, our own humanity,

In its amphibious state between the worlds.

There is more than meets the eye,

Yet we want our eyes to meet

In the shared language of our daily life

(Imagining that this is understood);

And the shadow of a great brightness

Remains our silent mystery.

Let us rather acknowledge that the limitation

Is rather in ourselves, who can’t else know

The things that great illuminations show –

Acknowledging we have so far to grow.

And the shadow of a great brightness

Is more real than sun and moon.