I have faith in nights

"You, darkness, that I come from
I love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes a circle of light for everyone
and then no one outside learns of you.

But the darkness pulls in everything-
shapes and fires, animals and myself,
how easily it gathers them! -
powers and people-

and it is possible a great presence is moving near me.

I have faith in nights." -- Rainer Maria Rilke

Darkness serves positive purpose. The human eye literally needs darkness so it can see at all for what the human eye sees is only possible when light is contrasted with darkness. And the human soul appears to need its nights of darkness, its time sitting in the fire. There are lessons in all nights of grief, all nights of darkness.