“With or Without Candlelight” (poem) by John Marsh

If you are going to meditate by candlelight,
do not hurry to light the candle.
The glow may concentrate your energies, but it will 

    cost you
the contours of the room.

If you walk the night forest by flashlight,
the electric beam may reveal details on your path,
but you will lose everything
outside your concentrated ray.
All that your light does not expose will become alien.
The sounds of animals will frighten you.

Shut off the beam, and you will travel the night forest
as one who belongs.

Let us praise things dark and beautiful:

The quiet of closed eyelids
The childhood of chocolate
The respectability of newsprint
The suddenness of a bat’s wing
The invitation of brewing coffee
The persistence of tar
The gentleness of nutmeg
The temptation of a cave.

If you are going to meditate by candlelight,
do not hurry to light the candle.