[Aradon Templar]: 240.Turns of Fear and Doubt

Turns of Fear and Doubt
(Response to For the Sleepwalkers, by Edward Hirsch)


Fear holds us back, and doubt too plies at our faith.
The twin serpents hide in darkness, mocking us from
their insurmountable fortress. Under their siege,

how can we trust even ourselves? Faith it takes
to believe in our path, and trust to live our lives.
A life is undervalued if it is not treasured,

and one who fears it will be snatched away cannot
appreciate truly the wonders of the living, being
wholly distracted by their unrevealed death.

Who will take that unseen step, if fear grasps
their mind and strangles their will? And yet,
what can overcome the two abominations,

if they retreat with the daylight to a place we
cannot follow and will never completely understand?
Faith, trust, and hope, that is what. Trust and doubt

are opposed like star and planet. Trust is pulsing
with energy and light, illuminating the darkness
just as the sun rises and shoos away the dark.

A planet, on the other hand, is hardly alive at all,
paling in comparison, reduced to a dim lump of rock,
because it holds no light of its own. Thus stand

faith and fear, one in radiant life, the other cowering
in the depths of cold, dark terror. Never will the two
meet, but frequently one rises to eclipse the other.

While fear chases away faith, so does faith fear.
Fear to live life is death, but faith to deny fear is life.
Triumphant are the ones who trust, even in the dark.