bliss – Energy and Time

“The wall between myself and bliss” (excerpt)

The wall between myself and bliss
has never been so paper-thin
as this: some days when I am near it
golden light comes leaking in
like sunlight through a stained-glass window,
autumn leaves, or shoji screen.
Warm and welcome, pure and present,
yet still not directly seen.
While some may argue nonexistence
of the sun, bathed in warm brightness
I heed no such rhetoric.
I only want to walk in light.

1994

Trickle-down Theory

Perhaps Earth is the septic tank
    of the gods: their joy and pleasure,
having been digested, settles here;
    their excrement, our treasure.

How else can we explain the way
    most joy is tinged with pain?
Why deadly rays should come with sun,
    or storm should come with rain?

Ah, but beloved, when I sit
    beside you, soul to soul,
we rip a rent in heaven, and bliss
    pours through the gaping hole.

San Jose, September 2, 1998
revised October 7, 1999

Holly Hurst

Holly Hurst went to the same
first-grade class as I did. She
rode the school-bus every day,
and sometimes sat in front of me.

Her pigtails were the shining blonde
of youth, impossibly bright.
Of her sunny smile, I was rather fond;
and her giggle was sheer delight.

Oh, being a child isn't always heaven,
there's so much that we must depend on -
but the innocence I miss.

Like the day she turned around in her seat,
and blessed my lips with her first completely
pure spontaneous kiss.

San Jose, August 26, 1998