The Dark Side Poem by Mary Champion

The witches and demons,
the gremlins and goblins;
what are the reasons
these monsters are lodged in
our folk-tales and fables,
our hag-ridden horrors,
our fearful appraisals
of night-time's dark horrors?

Murderous devils who bring retribution
for sins of the flesh and our mental pollution;
sadistic divinities promising torture
to mortals too frail to resist the disorder.
The bringers of life who renege on the promise,
dealing out death without reason or justice.

Almighty tyrants demanding obeisance,
mercurial, lunatic, steeped in impatience;
werewolves and vampires that prey as we slumber
ogres and bogeymen, fiends we can't number;
the Truth underlying these dark superstitions,
the horrible heart of the Human condition,
can now be revealed as the life force that fuels us,
the powerful source that eternally rules us.

This is the mad world - the chaotic maelstrom,
that all that we are is essentially based on.
But we shall survive on an island of order,
When we can construct an impregnable border.

This is our purpose, the reason we suffer -
to learn the harsh lessons that Earth-life can offer.
Pay heed to the dark side - its force ever with us
but cleave to the light, that true Wisdom can give us.