Here is my first attempt at a new form of poetry I have never written before: a dramatic monologue/soliloquy. I wrote it while contemplating the common phrase “the night is always darkest before the dawn.” Please enjoy!
The night is darkest before the dawn, as I am so often told. Walking through the halls of doom, a specter of dread looming over my shoulder at every turn. The dawn a light at the end of a sinister path, with no way back, and but one leading forward. A look behind or left to right brings only terror and emptiness. Peering into the shadow, it pierces the soul and slows the step.
Only striving toward the luminous glow brings hope, yet even that seems fleeting. The tendrils of the void closing in and gripping my mind. A twisted force spreading as light seems to recede. To reach dawn’s embrace as it recedes from the encroaching shadow, one must run to catch it. As the light recedes, all we can do to escape the darkness is to forever resist.
Walls closing in around me. An overwhelming force bearing down on my will, threatening to force me to my knees. All my strength conjured in every step. I battle with demons, pace-by-pace just to keep myself from stopping. The light calls to me, but the dark touches my core and drags me back. The beacon ahead a distant reminder of what is at stake and what lies ahead, yet the shadow an ever-present companion which trips me and turns me astray at every opportunity.
But darkness holds not forever to those who press ever onward. Yearning, striving toward the light with unwavering commitment and persistence. The night is darkest before the dawn, and the dawn shall come to those who do not falter. Its warm rays pressing on my face to comfort me as cold lashes tear into my back. I taste the blood and sweat pooling in my mouth as the light heals my frozen numbness, if only for a moment.
My body aches with burning cold scars, the pain I was apathetic to now returning as life and warmth refill my mind, body, and soul. I stumble forth into the sanctuary of the light. All the terrors of the dark recede and peace falls back upon the world. A stillness comes to preside over my mind and with it the clarity of calm. Looking back, I understand the path which led me here and push on further still.
Strength returns as darkness falls. The light pierces into shadow with the might of a thousand suns and vanquishes the last vestige of agony plaguing my weary soul. The night is darkest before the dawn, they say. Indeed, and the dawn breaks upon the darkness at the end of every night, picking us up to reach new heights. I feel stronger than the day before, for the cold lashes of the night pushed me toward the light I would have never otherwise reached.
Basking in the warm caress after having escaped the cold embrace of the darkness, my body reinvigorates and grows to new strengths not before imagined. I turn and face the encroaching shadow, now with the light at my back. Other souls inch forward, pulled back by the cold lashes whipping and grasping at their backs. With the warm push of the light guiding me forward with the fire and fury of a burning star, I rush forth into the darkness once more. The light steadies me now to reach out to others and bring them forth into the dawn as darkness fades and the shadow recoils back to the abyss.
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The Pensive Warrior 