Today, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer reads her poem, “The Empty Dark.” This poem appears at the beginning of the “Lent” section of A Beautiful Year.
Rosemerry will be our poet-companion this Lent. She will read one of her poems every Friday, each chosen to match the overall theme of the week.
This daily meditation is open to the entire community as a gift at the beginning of Lent. If you subscribe to the Cottage, you can share this reflection with others.
This is the final free audio Lenten moment. If you’d like to receive the entire series, please join in as a paid subscriber by clicking the button below.
We take Saturday off during Lent. The next Lenten moment will be delivered to your email on Monday.
Please visit Rosemerry’s website for more information about her work and books. You can also follow her on A Hundred Falling Veils, her poem-a-day blog where you can subscribe to receive her daily poem via email (if you like!).
“Answers don’t arrive if you’re afraid of sitting in the empty dark room of not knowing by yourself long enough for them to arrive on their own schedule.”
— Michael Thelen
Oh let me, too, be willing to sit in the empty dark
and let the darkness enter me.
Let me not pretend to know how it will be.
Let me lose my plans, though it terrifies me.
Let me not imagine any better time
to practice than now.
Let me be the bowl that sings when touched,
the bowl that is content with its own stillness.
If I want answers, let me sit with my longing.
If I want lessons, let me find them right here.
And if it is dark, let me not run from the dark,
but lean into it. And if it is light,
let me long for the light. Let it enter me.
Let me not pretend to know how it will be.
— Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
