Hard Lessons

"Hold me up to the light;
 you will see poems.
 Hold me in the dark;
 you will see light."
--Erica Jong, "We Learned"
 
birthday poem Jerry Araos 

it has taken years

the aid of medicine men

the chemicals of bliss & evenness

before i could learn

to even like the light

to welcome daybreak

& the softness it casts

on a leaf

on a spider's web

or on tufts on a baby's head

sometimes i burst out

of that self-made, suffocating trap

when you dangle that most irresistible

of invitations to a dance

that zestfully embraces

all that is worthy

of celebration & our combined contempt

i sense you unconsciously pushing back

the edges of my ever-encroaching darkness

look at you now!

your own brilliant madness transmuted

in the palpable curves of grace-filled torsos

in the sturdiness of tables from which

we sup & grind ideas & feelings, even those of pain,

down to their wispiest essences

for us to imbibe them

for strength to dream on

& to welcome the fecund darkness

that instructs us once more.
 
--Babeth Lolarga
 
First published in Sunday Inquirer Magazine 

Photo of Mr. Araos taken by Gigi Lolarga