Overview: In this ultra-short solo episode (ep 128), Adam Williams shares “a poem from somewhere, for whomever needs it.” For anyone who knows feelings of loneliness, anxiety and depression, this short poem, “Spark Cloaked But Burning,” is one of compassion and solidarity. (Released on podcast on Jan. 25, 2023)
Also on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, YouTube, Google and other players.
EP 128 SHOW NOTES, LINKS & TRANSCRIPT
Connect with Adam Williams
Humanitou on Instagram: @humanitou
About Adam
Art & Poem Credits
Podcast cover art, blog title art and poem below: Adam Williams
Music
“Old Rope” by Joe Johnson | joejohnsonsings.com
Original Written Version
A poem from somewhere for whomever needs it …
The poem that follows flowed by its own accord while I was washing dishes this morning. It came from me, though I do not think it came from any extraordinary cloud I was feeling in those moments. It came to me and I wrote it down.
I was not emotionally in the dark, I should say, but I do recognize the darker, lonelier feelings conveyed in this poem.
If you’re finding this stack of stones, as I sometimes imagine my short poems to be, “short stacks,” while experiencing your own moment of darkness, then I hope you might feel something less alone right now, and see your own “spark cloaked but burning.”
Spark Cloaked But Burning
I can’t see the sunlight
though I’m told it’s there.
When the gloom is so
thick, how and where
must we summon
a miner’s light,
a beam warm
and holding
that might
guide us
through?
Not all nights end
with dawn. Not all tunnels
lead to the pale, enriching glow
from which crops and spirits grow. Yet
somehow even then, we trudge on, clutching
at the dark, our breaths tight but striving.
Hope springs from somewhere internal
(eternal), if perhaps dimmed, a spark
cloaked but burning.
[Podcast outro comments added … ]
I’m Adam Williams. Thanks for listening to the Humanitou podcast. And thank you for however you might be sharing it with others, through word of mouth, social media, and by rating and commenting on it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you’re listening.
Remember, we’re all Humanitou. All we’ve got to do is stay true, stay human. Stay Humanitou.
