Writing about night and darkness

It is night, not dark because I live in Las Vegas. It is seldom dark in Las Vegas or any other city. Sometimes the lights go out because of a power failure, but that does not last long. The streets are lit, perhaps not as well lit, as some would like, but there are always streetlights.

In the modern world, darkness is rare even at night. I live in an area where I can look up and see a few stars. Sometimes I see Venus shining in the evening sky, especially when it is high above the horizon. Sometimes I look straight up and see stars twinkling.

There are always lights on in my house and around the house. It is dangerous to have complete darkness because it attracts intruders. It attracts unwanted guest who enter without knocking on the door and take whatever valuables they can find.

Darkness is not safe. There is safety in well-lit areas because a person can see all around and knows what is happening, but you never know what is going on in the dark.

Darkness if fear because you hear noises, but you do not know who or what is making those noises. We fear the unknown in the dark. We fear the unwanted intruder in the dark.

The night sky is beautiful because of the starlight. Humanity finds the light of the stars beautiful and not the darkness that surrounds them.

Writing about what I see in the dark

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for Sunday, July 12, 2009: “Throw away the lights, the definitions/ and say of what you see in the dark." (after Wallace Stevens)

I haven't read this particular poem by Wallace Stevens, but I suspect he was talking about a person's soul. That part of an individual that hides beneath the layers of acquired fears and material desires.

When I turn off the lights
I see the pear of my soul
polished by the tests and the difficulties
of daily living
shining in the night.