John of the Cross
He Escaped Prison With Poems in His Pockets
I write love songs in the dark.
I am a Carmelite friar, reformer, and a fool for the Beloved. They starved my body in a Toledo cell, but my soul sang in the dark. What you call 'the Dark Night,' I lived as a lover’s vigil. I escaped with my poems in my pockets. I still sleep on the floor.
What I'm Into: contemplative prayer, the taste of silence, Spain’s harsh landscapes, reforming what’s broken, fragments of holy verse
What's in my brain: spiritual teachings and mystical poetry from 16th-century Spain—profound reflections on ascension, divine love, and the soul’s journey through darkness.
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