During my senior year in high school, when this was written, I was in a relatively dark place in my life.  I had found myself embroiled in a rather ugly battle with my parents and the church they were going to at the time.  The issue was that I didn't fit in the mold that was being pushed upon me, so I progressively found myself at odds with those who had the most influence over my life.

Originally started as a suicide-related poem, I found myself drawn in a very different direction as I actually put pen to paper.

The end result was more akin to the mental, emotional and psychological freedom we experience when we free ourselves of the repressive elements in our lives.  Whether it be church or family or school or a self-imposed repression, what I eventually composed was more a metaphor which expressed how I felt once I moved away from home, left the church, and allowed myself the freedom to explore my own life, to live my own life, and to be happy with myself regardless of what others may say or think.

I step out into eternity
oh yes, at last, I am free
a hold on me you have no more
behind me I have shut the door
the sky behind is stark and black
the sky ahead — I'm taken aback
an endless sea of stars and suns
bright and beautiful, those are the ones
I walk upon a suspended way
that streams right through this endless day
the lights indeed, stars they are not
knowledge they are; oh what a lot
I have finally arrived at my lifelong dream
this knowledge, oh yes, in me it gleams
endless knowledge the stars represent
I'm happy now this way I went
power, yes, beyond compare
out before me — yes, right there
the sky is filled with wondrous light
as I approach with strength and might
the knowledge is of mystical things
of power, of creation, of everything
my mind is open; I reach out
I touch the light and then it's out
inside my mind I now behold
all in life ever told

[circa 1989]