Gutted

Diamond glinting tiny splinter 

Sharp piercing shaft of words

Slicing inward hitting harder

Ripping through my heart

                        *

How small the thing that hurts the most!

How harsh the truth that works in me the greater good!

No pea beneath twenty mattresses

Could have left me half so black and blue

As this tiny sword’s thrust through my little book:

The pearl, sparing nothing to spare me:

The truth, holding back nothing to hold me

                        *

Shallow the outer knowledge

That saw me gain some good

But which through lack of loss

Cluttered me within

Deep the inner knowledge

That saw me lose some good

But which through that gift of loss

Uncluttered me within

The diamond sword that sliced the stone:

The dividing line that told them both apart.

Two-edged plunged two sides were seen
And the difference there, between them,
The light that rent my heart in twain 
That set my life full free!

       
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