If you are drowning in grief and despair, it’s important to realize that you’re lost. You don’t know where to turn.
I’d suggest consulting a poet.
Consider these lines:
Agenda in a time of fear: Be not afraid.
When things go wrong, do right.
Set out by the half-light of the seeker.
For the well-lit problem begins to heal.
Those are the opening lines of “Citizen of Dark Times” by Kim Stafford, one of the finest poets working today.
I copied the poem onto a notecard and carried it around in my pocket, reading it as some people read scripture.
It lifted my spirits when the country seemed to descend into madness in the year before the 2020 election. That poem was a bit of light in the darkness. I shared it with friends.
I think poetry can be powerful stuff. It can be good medicine for wounded souls.
Many people feel lost and think there is nothing they can do. Actually, there is.
Instead of deciding that you’ll resolve a divided country’s social and political problems tomorrow, resolve to find a poet — or some other artist — who speaks to you, who sparks a light in you. Share the light with others. Keep it burning.
• Source: Kim Stafford, Wild Honey, Tough Salt; Pasadena, Calif.: Red Hen Press, 2019. “Citizen of Dark Times” is on p. 44. It’s also available on a sample page at Stafford’s site:
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