Where The Light Enters Me
Rumi said, “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
Adrift in darkest night Chained in thought The past confining Lost my way Yet here I stand
Alive
Surviving
Now starlight is dawning
These suns of ancient worlds, Singing their songs from before time They remind me Lest I forget why through This twilight I am walking Why I have come here to this place
It is to find me
Like a lotus, clean out of mire, From this mud I am rising
So’ham Hamsah*
And I am bright forever shining
Child of the prime creator Daughter of barbarian queens Descendant of warriors Seed of once mythical kings
Such precious blood Thrumming in my veins Pulsating drums steadily unwinding Their primal coils of infinite might
Ancestor spirits stand watch beside me Their voices as one Crying out across time
To refine me
I hear their words clear as day Hear their pleas to keep fighting
Their stories living on in my heart Lift me up they're undying
And I am trying
I'm still here trying
© 2018 S.G. Howell
**Soham is a Hindu mantra, literally meaning "I am He/That" in Sanskrit. But in Vedic philosophy it means identifying oneself with the universe or ultimate reality. The mantra is also often inverted from soham to hamsa in which form it means "swan". The combination of so 'haṃ haṃsaḥ has also been interpreted as "I myself am the Swan", where the swan symbolizes the Atman, the sanskrit word for inner self or soul. There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the bare bones gist of it.
