Open the door to wakefulness.
Struggle against the overpowering urge to slumber.
Open it just a crack, then let it fall, let it close
Back into sleep, ah, sweet slumber.
Try again. How much time passed?
Not ready to look at the clock,
Sweet slumber pulls me back once again
Into its warm, soft embrace.
But I must open the door, let the light in.
Darkness pulls me back, says quietly:
No, please stay. You feel so good.
The bed isn’t so lonely as it was last night.
What finally decides the moment?
The time when I step through the door
And find myself facing a new day?
Is it that little bit of light seen through closed eyelids?
And what do I make of this niggling thought
Pushing at the back of my consciousness?
Too easy to fall back to the sweet slumber
Of routine, not listen to the still, small voice.
Oh, but it’s there, ever present as the day.
What is it about the darkness, the ignorance,
That is so inviting?
It’s that comfortable, all-embracing complacency.
But I see the slit of light through the
Door that is slightly ajar.
And I want to go there.
I want to see the miracle of God.
It’s a step out of sweet slumber
That comes to me only occasionally,
When the stars, the planets and the moon
Are aligned just so.
So, at these rare moments
I must kick off the covers and follow
The light wherever it may lead me.
Through a day full of precious moments.
Here I can create, with words, with music
Whatever the voice is telling me.
To shirk off the comfort, to seize this day
And create God’s will.
The muse is here!
I let the voice come through me
Until, once again, the warm bedclothes
Embrace me at the end of the day.