The Necessary Darkness and Other Poems

by Anokina Shahbaz

THE NECESSARY DARKNESS

Maybe this is where

Our story begins

Like the earth’s

Formless and empty

Darkness over the surface

And the spirit of God

Hovering above.

Maybe it’s in the emptiness

That God does His best work

When we show up hollowed

By life’s piercing onslaughts

And bring our deficiency before Him

To use as clay.

Maybe the darkness

Is necessary

For God to awaken

The light in us.

We can spend our lives

Gathering treasures

To hoard away

To tuck into all the

Barren spaces of our soul

And yet, still feel empty.

We can satiate our egos

With one triumph

After another

One trophy won

And then another

Piling high our exploits

And yet, still hunger.

All the while

God sits in the heavens

Waiting for an offering

Shaped like despair

To reach Him

That He may begin

His beloved work

Of transformation

And renewal.

FOR THE SAKE OF THIS

Quiet the voices in me, God

That are not yours

The bulk of them

Self-serving, fickle, directionless

Inherently destructive

Yet firmly begging for my attention.

If I could gather them all up

And lay them down

One by one, as bricks

They would stand as tall

As the Tower of Babel

Trying to make a name for themselves

With no foundation

Ready to crumble

At the slightest insult or injury.

Let them fall away

Like the unwanted deposits

In the bottom of a pan

When sifting for gold.

Let them collapse

Like detonated structures

With nothing left to offer

But fertile ground

For a new creation to rise up.

And let only your voice remain

In the rubble

That I may hear your holy words

Speak life into me,

That I may come to understand

You have given me a voice

For the sake of this—

To speak love and truth

Into every place

Into everyone

Into everything

Under the sun.

ANOKINA SHAHBAZ

Anokina is a contemplative writer, poet, and seeker of meaning and miracles. She writes about faith, creativity, and the human condition. In her writing, she aims to fathom all the pain we carry, and ultimately, to lighten it—even just a little. Her work has been featured in MeetMindful, Elephant Journal, and Rebelle Society. She lives in the beautiful suburbs of Chicago with her husband.

Website/Blog: https://www.anokinawrites.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anokinashahbaz/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnokinaS