I said to my soul, be still (T.S.Eliot)

Thank you Ralph!

I said to my soul, be still,
and let the dark come upon you
which shall be the darkness of God.

As, in a theatre,
the lights are extinguished,
for the scene to be changed
with a hollow rumble of wings,
with a movement of darkness
on darkness,

and we know that the hills
and the trees,
the distant panorama
and the bold imposing facade
are all being rolled away –

Or as, when an underground train,
in the tube, stops too long between
stations and the conversation rises
and slowly fades into silence

and you see behind every face
the mental emptiness deepen
leaving only the growing terror
of nothing to think about;

Or when, under ether,
the mind is conscious
but conscious of nothing –
I said to my soul, be still,
and wait without hope
for hope would be hope
for the wrong thing;

wait without love,
for love would be love
of the wrong thing;
there is yet faith
but the faith
and the love
and the hope
are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought,
for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light,
and the stillness the dancing.

T.S.Eliot