De Profundis

(My Name is Legion)

Alone among the caves, tormented by
your many demons, what then can you do
but slash and gash yourself in desperation?
In solidarity, your body writes
your mind’s pain on itself in dark red ink.
No storm the nearby lake has ever known
has raged more fiercely than this storm within.
It seems the torment is inexorable:
you feel the demons dash you to the ground,
dash you so low, to crash upon the stones
and there to meet your endless, anguished end….

But no.

Against all their designs, you find instead
you’re dashed against the Rock of Ages. Past
all hope, you meet the One who—slashed and gashed—
descended to your hell, delivering you.
Heard, healed, and whole, set free by One so kind,
by a calm sea you sit now at his feet,
clothed, in your right mind.

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(Amongst other things, I think I had this quote—which apparently Spurgeon didn’t actually say, but which is beautiful nonetheless—in my mind with my Rock of Ages line.)