A Night Journeyer Reflects Upon Returning Poem by Daniel Brick

My time of Descent is finished, or rather
it is fulfilled. It is never that place
we attain which is changed: We are changed.
We descend to fields of riches. Often the air
glitters with gold, silver and multi-colored
gems. If we scooped up those riches and ascended
with them, would this placed be plunged into
greater darkness? Would our daylight world
be transformed into pure wealth? I can only repeat
what those of us who descend say again and again:
Down there, in that primal calm, desires are changed
into spiritual hopes, and as my colleague, Emily says,
"Down there we enjoy the Light Show. We don't want
to disrupt it. And when we return, we travel light,
we are fleet." Eventually, all of us make a pledge
to return from the depths empty-handed, weighing less
than when we left. What we love to do is to mock gravity
and greed and gluttony! You know how I recover from
the hardship of descending? I play music by Haydn,
because it carries no baggage, it is so light in weight
and it moves so fast, it lifts itself into the air.








It flies. That is the experience of The Descent...
Don't envy us. What we do is hard and dangerous.
Look up into the Night Sky. Don't you see it is already
morning there! It's only dark and gloomy down here.
That sky bursting with the light of the universe, that is
your sky, your world, your home. Treasure it....