I am alone; as alone as I can be.
The sounds of human voices
and the traffic of life
have long since faded away;
only the murmur of my heartbeat remains
and that ever so faintly.

My thoughts are clashing furiously about
like waves on a storm-tossed sea.
I have traveled far and wide,
high and low,
ever searching
yet never satisfied;
sometimes falling prey to delusional fantasies;
all dissipating quickly into gushes of anguish
amidst the stark environs of reality.

It is dark; so very dark.
Crying out in pain from the jagged stones along the way,
I am sorely tempted to lie down
and never rise again;
but I cannot . . .
From somewhere deep within my turbulence
the will to go on survives.
Yet I long for the knowing touch, the understanding voice;
a light in the empty void.

Then suddenly a bright flicker!
No . . . I think; ’tis only a fantasy . . .
but there it is again!
right in front of me; only a step ahead . . .
I reach for it as it leads me on;
stumbling and falling, I somehow rise again.

And now the ground beneath my feet seems smoother . . .
Grass! An open field! Shepherds and sheep!
It seems the light leaps upward,
bursting into innumerable stars!
Surely this is a dream, I think,
but there is so much brightness!
My darkness has vanished,
I now can clearly see!