Out of Darkness

OUT OF DARKNESS

There is a void around him, a palpable living darkness. Dark as the
depths of space. He imagines the earth, molten and restless, folding
and forming through aeons. It glows with heat, but he can see it only
in his mind's eye. Light is not. He thinks about stars and comets,
energy whirling through space generating a soft glow in the vastness of
the universe. He closes his eyes gently. The tangible darkness presses
its velvet fingers against his face.

He concentrates on images of fingers, the articulation of hands, of the
human form. In the fertile richness of his fantasy he pictures all
manner of men and women, their colours and characteristics. He sees
them begin their ritual dance of coupling. He smiles. Humour is part of
his dream. He opens his eyes. Light is not. He is alone. He is
isolated, bored with being solitary in this unknown environment. He
stretches out his mind in the darkness. He can discover no limit to the
space around him.

He returns to the concepts of planets and patterns of stars. As a
pastime he recreates order and interrelationships drawn from the
recesses of his memory. He is imprisoned here, but before this there
was another place, full of ideas and images. He struggles against his
inner darkness to recover recollections of a created universe that had
once been void. In darkness, time has no logic or measure. He is not
able to see if the dreams of his soul, his projections of former
creation, have taken new substance from the thoughts that fill his
alien solitude. The ache of loss, the pain of the absence, the lack of
what once was, tears at his banished spirit. He can bear the emptiness
no longer.

Has he been able to make all anew? Is his creative power still as it
used to be? Will he ever see again the myriad orders of living
creatures, of plants, of trees? Will the secret deeps of oceans and the
harsh peaks of mountains span the earth once more? Will man emerge to
comfort and torment him with the flawed beauty of humanity, the
limitless potential of the human soul?

Curiosity drags him from his lassitude. He unleashes the immense power
of his mind, willing away the bondage placed upon him. His strength
gathers into boundless energy. His psychic chains are shattered. He
leans forward over his re-imagined universe. "Let there be light!" he
says.

? LINDY McNAUGHTON JORDAN, 2001. (412 words)