Ode To Gloom Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

Sometimes, sometimes
The depth of gloom
Descends so far
Far
As to reach hell,
The entrails of the earth
Far point from hope
Where the long night
Reigns all day
And
Where the stars
Will never twinkle
Nor the moon
Its friendly languid rays will shine.

How many times
I lay
Thus pained and sacrificed
Like to the sacrificial lamb in gloom:
No friendly welcome lighthouse lit
The dark motionless sea
No breeze cooled
The leaden humidity around my soul
No oasis
Appeared; desert sands
Stretched ever-increasing and wide
Red burning raw and parched and hostile
And the stars
Never did twinkle in the frosty nights
Nor the moon
Its friendly languid rays shine.

But in gloom spirit works
My spirit remains
Full and unconquered, suffering
Yet vanquished not
Blind with pain
Yet stubborn in resistance
Leaden in humidity
Yet working, toiling, toiling…

Across the parched sands
I moved I pained I suffered
And then
And then
I saw an oasis
I saw my works
Bloom in full spring
Surrounded by the winter wraiths:
And I thanked gloom:
Gloom, the fuel of my works.