BY JAN HAAG
ECSTASY
11-16-97
(Inspiration for the Palimpsest Poems)
O, Devayani, why don't you want to
live in ecstatic bliss
all the time?
You have known the bliss of
sleeping high on Pine Canyon
summit alone,
without blankets or water
or fear; you have known
the ecstatic bliss
of walking in Zen, slowed
down to the pace of the cata-
pillar; you have
known moments of
bliss so overpowering in your work for
yourself and for others;
you
have known joyousness, divine exaltation while listening
to music, sat
with
the greatest musicians of this world; you have traveled in
the
countries
of your dreams, visited the lands of your hopes, met the
people
of your
heart's desire, yet now live alone. Like the half
life of an isotope
used
in carbon dating, you can calculate your
known rate of decay,
predict
how many blisses there are/might be before you are
accurately,
indisputably
pinned down in the grave,
bliss free. O, yes, and Devayani,
you have known
love -- that most
talked about of all human artifacts -- yet
now prefer solitude.
Is
this in itself divine grace? Bliss beyond endurance?
Happiness? Freedom
and joy?
Any day you could walk the summit of Pine Canyon,
any night
pace with the moon.
You could repeat any, all apsects of your
life,
but your choice is to stay alone
wondering, puzzled by your
inattention
to the murmurous call of ecstasy, in
harmony,
pleased
to be decaying like an isotope, beyond half life, beyond knowledge, beyond
bliss.
Copyright © 2000 Jan Haag
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Jan Haag may be reached via e-mail: jhaag@u.washington.edu
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BY JAN HAAG