To Truth - Anna Angell

Look at a life emptied of truth.

Look at a young one emptied of youth

Or a strong conviction emptied of proof.

Carrier-bag body and scrap paper soul

Witlessly whipped up and rolled

By each whisper of wind that blusters by;

Demanding, commanding control.

Shifting and shuddering,

Placeless and peaceless,

Hard to fix eyes on –

Without truth,

A life without hope or horizon.

But how that wily white-lie lies,

Flashing pale and pretty eyes,

To make us forget truth’s touch and scent,

As bit by bit the facts are bent to fit our darker whims;

And so it begins...

And unperceived we wander on

And truth’s last pale flicker’s gone

And in heavy dark we stand alone.

Do not settle for this busying and dizzying half life.

No, no, no!

We were made for eagle flights;

Mastery of airflow, to absorb truth like rain and grow!

We were made for truth,

All fashioned to be filled with and fuelled by truth.

And if pulled apart from truth

We stand to lose track of our very selves.

As empty shelves or hollow shells,

The noise coming back just distorts that which enters.

Like soulless, sparkless towns without centres

Or silently swinging noiseless bells.

And the heavenly ear leans hard to hear

The honest shouts of teeth-gritted, indignant, foul-mouthed fear;

Far sweeter is that ugly sound

Than tick-box, truthless, trifling rounds

Of thinly disguised pride and pretence.

For truth does not fear truth

And far greater is the use

Of an honest heart and upturned bloodied hands,

Than a thousand well presented plans.

And deeper than mere common sense

A truthful life which risks the tense and terse,

Will always in the end unearth

The treasure in the ground beneath.

So bring honest praise through gritted teeth

And shout your way through bitterest grief.

For the very last thing from which a soul should part

Is an honest call to heaven’s heart.

In truth alone can Truth himself

Reveal and heal and slip by stealth

The slow and gradual grains of grace,

Which grow within our darkest place.

To truth to truth, oh let me fly;

For without truth, then nought am I.