New poem: "Outside the Box of Life"

 

 

Outside the Box of Life

 

We have to be outside the box of life

to see how trapped we are when we’re

in the box; but getting outside the box of life

is much harder than we think; —

 

I, like every person in the world, was born

in my box; but unlike most people, I did not

feel that I belonged, and I desperately

wanted out of my predicament; —

 

Something wasn’t right, but I didn’t know what;

and I began to question my Roman Catholic

faith. All the same, I prayed to Almighty God

for guidance, but all I got was silence; —

 

I was very young, but my days were long,

and I suffered more than I could bear; and then

providence intervened, and I did something evil

that set the course of my life on fire; —

 

The box! The box! That was my cursed fate,

and to find my way out, I had to break through

the walls of my prison; but how was I to accomplish

that, when I was so blind and ignorant? —

 

I struggled to make a living, I read, I sought, I prayed,

and even pleaded; but the walls were too thick

to penetrate, and I took my anger out on Almighty

God like Job in the Old Testament; —

 

Why, I despaired like Job, must I suffer so when I’ve

repented for my sin? And to my surprise, I dreamt

of my past lives, and tiny cracks in the walls

of my life began to appear; —

 

The light was bright enough to see the darkness

in my soul, and the more I looked at the light shining

through the cracks of my life, the more the secret

way of life revealed itself to me; —

 

The strides that I took seemed gigantic; but they

were bold but necessary steps that built up

my courage and strength to live the way of life

that Almighty God intended; —

 

And when I did step outside the box of our soul’s

paradoxical nature, how simple my life proved to be;

but God Almighty, it took a long time to resolve

the mystery of who we are meant to be.

 

Composed in Georgian Bay, Ontario

Sunday, April 14, 2024