Music to accompany the poem: Anouar Brahem “Le Pas du Chat Noir”.
It’s only when you are alone
You can see yourself as you truly are,
But only if you are looking at yourself
Honestly.
To be one’s own spectator
Requires courage, vigilance, and commitment.
Christ spent forty days in a desert,
Alone with his anguish, his fears and his conscience.
And having listened to the whispers of solitude
He was ready for crucifixion.
And having passed through a straight gate
Of existence, he died to his old self,
Only to be reborn anew.
Thus he became what he always was—
Human, all too human.
So you, too, must listen to the whispers of solitude.