Week 12: Here

in lonesome darkness

Week 12: Here

truth bears witness in lonesome darkness

Here

I tried to be present            to the pain

to look at reality         in all its vulgar holiness

to be vulnerable and known       without pretense or fiction

but it's much easier to escape       into bottles

and brothels and basilicas

than it is to truly be          here.

Description: "Here" is a spare, confessional meditation on presence and avoidance. Through stark contrasts—holiness and vulgarity, vulnerability and escape—it explores the human impulse to flee discomfort in favor of numbing rituals, whether sacred or profane. The final line lands with quiet force, framing being here as the hardest and most honest act of all.

Reflection: What emotion(s) or realities cause you to check out from the here and now? Where do you go, physically or mentally, during those moments? How can you practice being here, even when it's hard and painful?