• (This is not exactly my view on rebirth, nor is it what I believe in myself, but perhaps the afterlife differs from person to person, depending on how said person lived, the choices the person made. Nevertheless, this poem was inspired by another one of my restless dreams.)

    REBIRTH

    So bright, it shines
    Under the closed door
    So alive, this light
    It draws the darkness
    To its vibrant gaze.

    There is nothing like it
    I’ve seen before
    Noiseless, yet so loud
    It swallows me whole
    Leaves me in a trance.

    Lived inside the black
    For so long
    Floating in a nightmare
    Swimming in nothing
    An eternity of descent.

    Even a dim light
    Like the small slit
    Underneath this door
    Would blind me now
    Have me frozen in terror.

    White death, I am sure
    Awaits me on the other side
    But am I not already?
    What of this nothingness?
    What choice have I?

    Had I a form
    Surely this light
    Would have burned it
    As it was, I found myself
    Drawing near the white death.

    I’ve become too close
    I want to stay
    The darkness is my home
    The blackness my friend
    The light overpowers my will.

    Had I eyes
    I would bind them shut
    The knob on the door
    Starts its slow turn
    The dread behind it unimaginable.

    The white death appears
    On the door’s side
    Growing, illuminating all else
    The dark behind me no longer there
    The door itself disappears beyond.

    Had I legs
    I would run away
    But the light has won
    It envelopes me
    A new eternity is upon me now.

    Something strange has happened
    There is a new feeling
    The terror has been replaced
    A dead calm has risen
    A peace within this light.

    The light dims
    An abrasion of my fingertips
    Against solid earth
    I can see again
    And with sight, I view the sky.

    Never had I imagined
    A more beautiful landscape
    Even in my restless past
    Under the earth’s cover
    My back against earth’s crust.

    With this new body
    I push myself up
    I behold my destiny
    Outward from this empty field
    Onward toward a fresh life.

    END