Where does one begin to speak of Fear and its myriad, shape-shifting forms? Sufi mystic, Hafiz, calls it the cheapest room in the houseand would like to see us living in better conditions. Yes, this great seducer, fear can be easy to get used to, offering us false assurances as it tightens its grip, and enslaves us
It is a sly tyrant, and continues to enable actual tyrants on the world stage, who lead us to believe that we have no alternative but to trust Fear. There is no greater illusion than the 'comfort' that fear offers—mind-forged manacles visionary poet, William Blake, called these limitations that we impose on ourselves. Existential writer, Franz Kafka, went further when he confessed that he could sound like the bribed-defender of his fears.
Seducer-deceiver-tyrant, Fear, wishes to see us reduced, mistrusting ourselves, others and Life.
We are not ourselves, when we surrender to fear, and do not think straight or act out of the fullness of our being.
We reclaim ourselves and all of Life's possibilities when we truly recognize that fear is a liar. What's more, spiritually-speaking, we are fearless once we realize we are deathless. Today's poem is an attempt, tenderly, to talk us out of fear and develop this insight by bold writer, Anaïs Nin: And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
I.
Difficult in these grim days,
of fear and loathing,
not to become radicalized -
by pity and love.
II.
The day you lose your fear
of sleeplessness, you will sleep
and the day you lose your fear
of wakefulness, you will awake
Only then will you realize, my dear
'bribed defender of your fears'
that you do not need them so much
as they desperately need you
For you are far, far more than the sum
of these devious ciphers you suffer
the treasured lot clotting your chest
blocking an ever-rising sun from view
In light of their absence, you will clearly see
an essential self, free of borrowed shadow
you would hardly recognize that you, now
unflanked by those old fears… believe me.
© Yahia Lababidi
(Images from Pixabay
This is my entry for Day 4 of @d-pend's 100 Day Poetry Challenge. To learn more, please, visit Steemit School on discord