Hope In Dark Places

Lord, as I awoke again this morn
A thought anew to me was born,
As from a second horror-flick
I woke – and wondered source of it.

Ah yes – that talk – on CBC –
A son of Stephen King was he;
He did define that genre best:
“Explore those things we all detest –

Like subjects we are all troubled by
But touchy are – some make us cry;
Like what's beyond our life round here –
As parallel? beyond the beer?

And Marcia’s talk about that dial
Of love controlling all the while
Degree of excess and constraint
In all things good – what makes us faint.

As in that shack up on the hill
Where I was living, working till
That awful day – of quicksand pit,
The chainsaw, gasoline for it –

The little girls – one not missed yet –
The engineer, near freight car lit
Almost the match, then put it down –
Reprieve – diverted horror’s round –

Ah yes, that dial – ahem, nice toy –
All that's in there – inside this boy;
And now I see that genre true –
That is a way my work could do.

What could I bring through words like that?
Just titillate? Just stretch the fact?
Just entertain? Scare pants off those
Who dared to tread where no one goes?

But what of all that hope I bring?
In horrors vale I've dared to sing,
Not just because so blind I am,
But more because, in faith, I can.

Is that not what I do each day
Of this existence, more today?
I walk amidst the bad unseen
And ask what life ’round here could mean.

I hadn't thought that way before
Rejected “horror”, “true crime” more –
Refused, or couldn't evil see
Though always it's been part of me.

I've known the “bad part” of my book
Has absent been each time I've looked;
But now I see it differently –
Turn all around – there hope I see –

There in the midst of chaos bad
Gut-wrenching pain, events so said,
The horror best portrayed for us
Off-screen – that dial – restrict how much –

For no-one can more bad create
Then readers who participate –
They bring to books that other half,
The half inside where they can't laugh.

So walk them through those places dark,
Suggest enough to make it stark
Within their minds – turn dial up
Like a roller coaster make it rough –

Push them inside that genteel life
They walk each day as man and wife,
As children in their pleasant land
Into a world they cannot stand.

For it’s illusion, life round here,
It's life's reality they fear –
Like life around a campfire bright,
The dark is pushed back by the light.

Stu, you've been there, faced evil’s round,
Been high then dragged by others down,
Faced death yourself, and loss of things,
Despair you've felt – what hope then brings.

You've seen enough, don't hesitate;
You've done the drafts, now you could make
The real books – the ones not made,
Both genres now – the plots all laid.

You asked Me to the evil side
Awake your eyes, see where it hides;
And now you see it – it's right here –
It's all around in life held dear.

That's what is wrong with culture this –
They play with death, things gone amiss;
But when the real is faced, say, ‘no –
Then cannot be – it is not so’.

Indeed it is, for that you've seen,
You walked where others’ trouble’s been;
Far more disastrous than those books
Are horrid times where good’s forsook.

And now that dial you know about;
And how the folks refuse to look
And see just what their context is,
So, blindly lead a life of bliss.

Lord, I'd not seen those genres’ roles;
Just thought they played around like moles
Avoiding light of day to play
With darker side of life, for pay.

But now I get it – open up,
Engage this world – the part that's rough;
Ask who it is we people are,
And where we've come, at least this far –

Are we all good? Have evil side?
What of those parts we try to hide?
What fears here linger in our breast?
Are we much better than the rest?

What happens when we leave from here –
In death, in parting, when we veer
From standard path’s security
To venture forth, of life to see?

Now that, my Lord, appeals to me
Push into places they can't see
And see what's there – reality
Not just despairing – hope-fully.

                         *****

What “stage of change” in target group?
Just work to make their eyes wake up?
Play games with them when first aware?
Feed info in once they despair?

Push forward to commitment time
As they expand, and options find?
Encourage them to persevere
With changes made in life round here?

Speak mainly from transcendence place?
Or take them there, as human race –
Not genus-species overall
But in their case – let people fall?

                       *****

What is your view of life today ?
Stu – what is it you want to say?
“Our time is short, life lasts a while
Enough for triumph over guile.

“Enough to turn within our souls
Small chunks of lead to purest gold.
The race is not outside us now,
But deep within each precious hour.

“We wake too late, when trouble hits
It makes us squirm, at end of wits.
We flip around like fish online
Then come to rest – and true life find.

“Most folks are blind, or they deny
What around us lies, although we smile
And talk with great disdain while we
See selves above – we'd never flee –

“Yet just one whiff of trouble rough
It's to the hills – we flee that stuff –
But those who bide their time down there
Find hope abides amidst despair.”

“That's mostly what I have to say
What I pass on in life each day –
“Life works, (though lumpy is the road),
When God and others share the load.”

I'm not so great on theory, see,
Quite boring is theology;
Philosophy – ho-hum I'd say,
I'd rather go outside to play.

I've always been that way it seems,
Found school a waste of time and dreams;
It had its uses, I'll admit,
But in the end, I did not fit.

I'd rather live my life for real,
And go outside the box to steal
A glimpse of life as really lived –
Where terrors lurk, and folks are shived.

Not that I'd want to live out there
An armchair crook and cop – that pair –
Whichever side I would build up
No different – both find life is tough.

For I'm not cop and robber type –
More folks around the scene who fight
For daily bread in jungle world
Of office, shop, small business swirl –

That's plenty bad enough for me,
In that all parts of life I see;
The evil that we face each day –
Temptations power, how we then pay.

It's more I fear the dark no more –
Don't tiptoe round what I abhor –
But now the dark-side enter in
Bring leaven, salt, and light within.

I feel like something’s evened out
Within my soul, and do not doubt
The love You shed abroad through life
O God, amidst this ruckus strife.

I want to bring to others hope
Through words, mix in what others spoke
Through all the range of life round me –
Taste, smell, hear, feel, intuit, see.

A photo life I've had I guess
Like filmic world from bad to best;
I see how others crash and burn,
And somehow never seem to learn.

I feel for folks – I've been there once
Or twice – found we don't always bounce
Back to our former selves with grace
Once fallen flat upon our face.

We need a word of hope sometimes
When things look bleak in daily grind;
A word of guidance, wisdom's ways
To make it through our darkest days.

To me that's what the Church is for –
A place we’re safe within its door
To be ourselves – look deep within –
And face our terrors, weakness, sin.

Through course of days I can't be there,
I thought I would – I still do care –
But that can't be, I now can see,
So must accept – serenity.

That leaves for me to courage bring
To what remains – how can I sing
My way from here to heavens gates,
While here in life participate?

I see this writing-task as way
To say my piece, and make it pay
For food and costs of daily bread –
Books good enough that they'll be read.

Of course I am no Hemingway
Or Keats, or Wordsworth of my day
I'm just a guy who has something
I want to say – some hope to bring.”

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