Journeying Onward – a poem by Deborah Sage

Journeying Onward

Climbing stone steps to the chapel, I stumble,
Bruising my palms as I try to break my
Fall and fail.
Gingerly, I get to my feet, knees and ego bleeding.
Embarrassed, I look about for witnesses to
My clumsiness, but find
 I am alone.

Then, suddenly, I laugh aloud at the perfection of 
Metaphor. 
Walking upwards, seeking Enlightenment, how often I
Stumble, fall, writhe in my contrived concern for 
What others might think, then,
Tentatively rise and journey onward in solitude,
Toward the Divine.

		 

Deborah Sage lives in Louisville, Kentucky. She has been published in Eternal Haunted Summer, Fairy Tale Magazine, Literary LEO, the 2022 Dwarf Stars Anthology, All Shall Be Well: new poetry for Julian of Norwich, Eye to the Telescope, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and Ephemeral Elegies among others. She was the poetry judge for the 2025 Fairy Tale Magazine Prose and Poetry Contest.