02-26-2016, 11:03 AM
To those who wanted a less insipid couplet, here's one that sticks closer to the central metaphor. {And please excuse the bump!}
Edit3
What gets you through the tunnel and the nights
Is much the same: it answers midnight dread -
Of feared abandonment and cave-in plights -
With claims of love or safety, read or said.
Hope’s not enough: you must own confidence,
Belief in science, that this tunnel’s roof
Is like each other’s, bored through rock as dense,
That’s crushed no one – a tested, public proof.
You likewise trust the pillars of your mind -
Religion, romance, ideology -
Because they’ve helped so many souls to find
Safe passage through each night’s geology.
We tunnel not with instinct, but belief;
Our overburdened lives want stress relief.
Edit3
What gets you through the tunnel and the nights
Is much the same: it answers midnight dread -
Of feared abandonment and cave-in plights -
With claims of love or safety, read or said.
Hope’s not enough: you must own confidence,
Belief in science, that this tunnel’s roof
Is like each other’s, bored through rock as dense,
That’s crushed no one – a tested, public proof.
You likewise trust the pillars of your mind -
Religion, romance, ideology -
Because they’ve helped so many souls to find
Safe passage through each night’s geology.
We tunnel not with instinct, but belief;
Our overburdened lives want stress relief.
Non-practicing atheist