Light comes in,
And shadows go away,
Not vanquished,
But veiled.
As with concealed memories
Waiting out there at the edge
Of consciousness.
Darkness makes its spooky mark,
A palimpsest on the fabric of space.
Yet light could obliterate,
However,
The trace remains,
A black relief.
As brightness increases,
Shadows disappear.
Our form appears to rise, unraveled.
The more luminous we become,
The lighter we weigh,
Through light’s caress matter ends.
In this equilibrium
Between seen and unseen,
Light wipes off what is hidden beneath it.
But then,
There is a trick you can do with your fingers:
Press it.
Make it brighter
Or darker, that’s up to you
The decision is yours
But it’s something that’s not often known.
In warm bright or cold dark contact
Your core discovers how to go down or stay up.
The Dance of Illumination
Isn’t it intriguing how light and shadow play such a complex dance in our world and in our minds? This piece beautifully captures the interplay between illumination and darkness, both literally and metaphorically.
Think about how shadows aren’t vanquished, but veiled. It’s like what Carl Jung meant when he said, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” Our shadows are always there, even when we can’t see them.
The idea of concealed memories at the edge of consciousness reminds me of Sigmund Freud’s concept of the unconscious. As he put it, “The unconscious is the larger circle which includes within itself the smaller circle of the conscious.”
When the poem talks about darkness making its “spooky mark,” it’s reminiscent of what physicist Brian Greene said about dark matter: “The invisible, it turns out, makes up most of the universe’s mass.” What we can’t see often has a profound impact.
The notion that “the more luminous we become, the lighter we weigh” brings to mind Albert Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc². As he explained, “Mass and energy are both but different manifestations of the same thing.”
The equilibrium between seen and unseen echoes what quantum physicist Niels Bohr said: “The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.” Light and dark, seen and unseen, are often two sides of the same coin.
Finally, the idea that we can control the brightness or darkness reminds me of Viktor Frankl’s powerful words: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
So what does all this mean? Perhaps it’s about recognizing that light and dark, known and unknown, are all part of our experience. It’s about understanding that we have some control over how we perceive and interact with these forces.
Remember, every time you choose to “make it brighter or darker,” you’re exercising a profound power. As the philosopher Plato said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
So next time you encounter light or shadow, take a moment to consider. How are you interacting with it? How is it shaping your perception? Because in the end, isn’t that what makes life rich? This constant dance between light and shadow, known and unknown, and our ability to engage with it all.