" Valley of Shadows "
Amidst the Darkness There Residing
Prowling, Waiting Beneath the Shadows Rising.
Unknown the Direction from which its Deciding
To Reveal itself out of Hiding.
Lurking, stalkingUntil the Perfect Timing.
I Trembled in Fear Hoping His Voice
I Can Still Hear Inside Me.
I ask,
" Oh Lord, You Still There? Are You there Beside Me? "
But My Faith Steps in & Says, "Keep Pushing Onward."
As It's Always Reminding,
" Fear Not For I Am With You Even when the Mind Starts Denying. What Reality is Real? What is it Defying ?
All Logic as it Seemed Says, it's Not Aligning.
Just Keep the Faith that Everything has Its Devine Timing.
According to What I Am Designing, Just Keep Marching steady Hiking,& Don't You Ever Give up, No Not on Yourself.
You just Keep on Shining. ust keep on Fighting.in Time You'll seeMy Great Design & You'll Finally See the Silver Lining.Like A Lamp onto Your Feet it will Soon be Lighting" But Overwhelmingly it All Bears Down With Images that kept Flooding My Thoughts, My Mind, Repeating, Rewinding
of These Terrifying Sightings.Of What's Been Lurking
Right here Beside Me. Then the Light i Once Felt Guiding,
Left my Hand Empty as it Did My soul, A feelin' I wasn't liking.
As I could watch and Feel it GrowIt Began to widen.Within the Empty SpaceFrom Where it Once Resided. I Saw a Chasm So WideThat it Swallows OceansWithout Even Trying.
I Crumbled to My Knees Like a House of Cards, At this Sighting."Oh Lord is This Me? Am I The One Dying?""Was I Not Enough ? Not Entrusting Enough?Or Did I Not Trust in You Enough? Or In Your Rules and Plans?i did my Best Abiding?
Did You to Just Give Up on Me? Like Everyone Else it Seems?Did You To Give up Trying?" But Silence Was All That I kept Finding. My Face Began to Melt iin My Hands And I Just Couldn't Stop Crying. Sobbing I was Blinded. While Rivers of Torment Started Flooding within& All Around Me
But there in The Near but Distant SurroundingsI Sensed SomethingNew AlarmingI Saw a Glimpse of Hope
and Images of Something Lighting. Then There In my Hands I Could Start to See,All That Pain Was Carrying With Me,
There I Saw was Leaving My Body. As I Got Up From
Off My Knees The Ground Was No Longer Prescent it Could Not Be Seen. Like the Rivers of Babylon It Rushes Over My Feet from Which I Had Fallen.Still Scarred & Scared Ashamed My Sins Kept Reminding. As I Tried to Block it All Out Screamed, "Light of the world, Why did You stop Shining?
You Left Me Cold, Naked, Aloneand Here I lay Dying?"
But the Silence Was So Loud Through the Valley & The smell of Death i Can still Taste as it kept climbing. Reaching for me.
I scream again, "wWhere Did you Go? Am I the Only One Still Trying?" " What's the Use if I'm the Only One Left Fighting?"
"Tell Me Then,Is Then This Me I feel, Smell, Hear and see Dying?Is this Victory I tasteOr am what you're denying?"
" As you Let me Give You my last breath Why yours Did You keep hiding?" And when I had lost All strength was barely standing i still kept trying praying fighting
Till it was more than I could take
From inside im left Hollow.
As peer off I see the gallows
I'm not like Zion
With whom you have your eyes On?
All around me still heard Gnashing and biting.
HOT SULFER the breathe that Whispers,
"At your Birth You where better off dying."
In that moment I stood Tall
& I Spat the Taste of Death
That Lingered from My Lips
into the Eyes of this Demon of Deciet.
That was Dead Set to Devour Me.
An I Lept up into What Felt like the Sky
but More Like an Abyss in Reality.
As I felt as upward I was flying
beyond the clouds
Still i couldn't see it shining
All my tears I was hiding
fell to the wayside No time for whining
Into the Sun I finally saw so brightas I climbed upwards
until i was purged of the light
And a remnants of the taste Was like coal upon my lips, I sighed, then it slowed Abruptly Onto a Dead Halt
where no longer was I in controlI let go in submissionas I began to fall I fell steady falling. Like The tears left drying beyond the clouds a Different Lighting No You cant see my tears
From where I've been hidingI'm not ...its not ...
It's the me, that you didnt see.that you now see Shining
Upon My Horse I'm Ridingin Perfect Timing. It was the Darkness from Within Me
the Evil That He Was Hiding Leading Me Through the Valley So I Could Go on Shining.

- Joe Lilley