by Darren Horton

Created on: August 14, 2011   Last Updated: May 30, 2012

Doubt Sestina

The path to faith is lit with absolutes
That flicker, shifting, like the wraiths of doubt
Who line ‘The Way’ in all our ghostly dreams.
Instead, we stumble on, by candlelight
Down paths of tangled proof - believing none;
Dismissing none - for both are traps of truth.

We chop at lines that vie to strangle truth
And trip o’er holes, of faith in absolutes;

Read signs of multi-lingual text, but none
Have answers matching those of ancient doubt                       
Where Socrates, it seems, regarded light
From long accepted Gods, as fancy’s dreams.

There is a middle route, between the dreams
Of writers, fired up with partial truth,
And those who just believe their eyes.  A light
So dim, it’s flame is lost in absolutes;
A flame of truth; a certainty of doubt
That wraps around ideas,  and yet, solves none…

…except the one that matters most, for none
Of us can say for certain what those dreams
Could mean, without the element of doubt.
And as suspicion moves, so then, the truth
Will out; to soothe grey, blighted absolutes
With (not what IS, but what IS NOT) The Light.

Chaerephon, on a quest, steps down from light
To seek the darkest prophetess, bar none
The Delphic oracle, whose absolutes
Are inexplicably revealed through dreams.
This virgin seer’s drawl, back then, was truth;
A sacred feminine, dissolving doubt.

By seeking truth, he only proves that doubt
Is wisdom of a kind.  Amid false light
His question bounces back unhelpful truth
Inside those hallowed halls. (Though wiser) none-
-the-wiser, from her visionary dreams
That deem it wise to question absolutes.

Though Socrates could doubt and see with none-
-Believing eyes, his light reflects in dreams
Desired truth, by seeking absolutes.

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