A time in the Mind by Connor Kaplan

A time in the Mind by Connor Kaplan

In a dark time, the mind evolves,

I think of what I could have done;   

I hear my echo in the recesses of my mind—

A lord of silence presses his finger to his lips.

I live between the inspirational and the failed,   

People of industry and many who bailed.

What’s insanity but the idea of normality

to the strange? The night is drowning!   

I know the function of dysfunctional happiness,

To believe your happy when you’re not.   

That place among the trees—is it a forest,   

Or a shield to protect you from the other side? Like a cliff hidden in mist.

Light, light my shadow, and enlighten my intelligence.   

My mind, like some confused fly stuck running into the window frame,   

Keeps buzzing at fact it can’t escape.

A risen man, I climb out of my daze.   

The soul enters itself, but not even God,   

can find it, even though it tried it was just awed.

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Poem of the Day: In a Dark Time

Posted: Sat, 25 May 2013 00:00:00 -0600

In a dark time, the eye begins to see,

I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;   

I hear my echo in the echoing wood—

A lord of nature weeping to a tree.

I live between the heron and the wren,   

Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.

What’s madness but nobility of soul

At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire!   

I know the purity of pure despair,

My shadow pinned against a sweating wall.   

That place among the rocks—is it a cave,   

Or winding path? The edge is what I have.

A steady storm of correspondences!

A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,   

And in broad day the midnight come again!   

A man goes far to find out what he is—

Death of the self in a long, tearless night,   

All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.   

My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,   

Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?

A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.   

The mind enters itself, and God the mind,   

And one is One, free in the tearing wind.

Theodore Roethke, “In a Dark Time” from Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. Copyright © 1963 by Beatrice Roethke, Administratrix of the Estate of Theodore Roethke. Reprinted with the permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.