The Abyss of the Mysteries

We stand upon the islands of what we think we know,
and the abyss of the Mysteries, vast and deep,
stretches out from these shifting sands
and well beyond the hazy horizon
of sensation, emotion, image, and word.

And so we learn the limits of the mind
through observing the death of our thoughts,
their drowning into oblivion within the unknown,
and thus we form the fear that swimming into the abyss
would be the end of all, with no return, no rebirth.

But, now and then, some stranger appears upon the shore,
or perhaps some old friend, dripping wet and shivering,
unable to speak, yet eyes oddly ablaze,
a cool fire, a fervent placidness, shining through them,
trying to communicate something ineffable.

Some of these intrepid souls, each in their own ways,
reach out to beckon others to join them in the deep.
Some grab, pull, and shove indiscriminately,
attempting to force the fearful past their fears,
often leading them only to panicked half-drowning madness.

For these islands of presumed knowledge
are surrounded by the reefs of our submerged illusions,
and to push souls beyond the banks before their tide and time
is only to send them crashing upon the jagged edges
of the damnation and torment they have created for themselves.

Perhaps upon the grand scale of existence
such violence is necessary for a few,
and maybe even for each soul in some measure,
but why would anyone presume to make it so,
if not to satisfy one’s own illusions of another sort?

Driven by our instinctive need for liberation,
tempered by the equally deep urge for identity,
countless souls come to the shore with hearts softly imploring,

“Smile gently and challenge me with a kind voice. Take my hand.

Wade with me into the surf, that I may safely learn to swim.”