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Tuesday, August 22, 2023

The Light of Darkness, Poem by Mary Sue Barnett ARCWP

 



τραύμα

The Light of Darkness 


Oh cave of my heart

Such are your depths 

Your earth song beating 

Rhythmic and grounded

Pumping my blood 

For every moment 

A human cries out

In my presence 

A river of love flowing 

Toward their trauma


Oh soul of my soul 

Such is your breadth 

So face-to-face 

I draw near

Softly, as he pleads 

For release from 

Schizophrenic demons


Hear God in his pleas. 


Oh cave of my heart

Such is your wordless

Distance, that I may 

Anoint with oil near 

The wound in his head

My own breath interrupted 

As he is dying

And as his mother breaks


See the Holiness of their bond. 


Oh soul of my soul

Such is your thin veil 

That I am drawn

To catch her with

My own body 

A mother collapsing 

Under the weight 

Of her daughter’s Femicide. 


See the Sacred power of her love. 

Oh cave of my heart

Such are the holy tears 

Through which I see

To hold steady 

With the girl bent

On killing herself

From rape trauma


Feel the Divine fighting for her. 


Oh soul of my soul

Such is your spaciousness 

In which I am held

To hold space for

Violent chaos, to

Quiver with empathy

In the blood and carnage

Of gunshot victims


Perceive the closeness of Christ. 


O cave of my heart 

Such is your regal and wide

Darkness that I may dwell 

In strength for the sex

Trafficking victim unmoored

In this world crying

“Where are You?”

To God in the chapel of

The trauma hospital 


See her in the Divine Image. 


O soul of my soul

Such is your labyrinthine ground

Upon which I walk

That compassion meet trauma 

Care meet illness

Gentleness meet loneliness 

Hope meet depression

Stillness meet psychosis 

Understanding meet suicidality 

Peace meet pain

Reverence meet death 

Kindness meet fear

Love meet despair 

Respect meet humanity 


Oh cave of my heart

Such are your depths 

Your earth song beating 

Rhythmic and grounded

Pumping my blood 

For every moment 

A human cries out

In my presence 

A river of love flowing 

Toward their trauma



Mary Sue Barnett, ARCWP

Priest Chaplain 

Leve 1 Trauma Hospital 

&

Psychiatric Hospital 




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