The Outer Darkness Poem by John Lars Zwerenz

THE OUTER DARKNESS

I ventured out one Godless, bitter night,
And looked up, astonished, to see no stars on high.
Winds rose and froze ponds and wells, and without a cloud in sight,
I fell into the firmament, into the cold, abysmal sky.

Despair in the air of damnation reigned with might.
I saw tombs and caskets filled with cobwebs and bones.
The reeds I found were dry, of deathly pale tones.
And I was alone, abandoned, devoid of hope, all light!

My feet wreathed with thorns rustled in those prickly vines,
Where waves of blood like poison brines
Swept the coal-black grass bereft of all love.
Horror governed all below me and terror reigned above.

Beyond reconciliation, I broke a sepulcher with my head.
Now forever do I weep, gnashing my jaw,
For to my pitiable anguish, in an ecstasy of awe,
I am in the outer darkness- dead!