Paradise,
even more beauty,
more love,
more truth,
more ecstasy,
more justice,
more joy,
more blessedness,
more peace,
even more
than you can ever imagine!
Go for it,
now!
Deep down,
lurking,
surging,
beneath every desire
you have ever pursued,
you have always hungered
to be filled,
to be bathed,
every fiber
ever cell of your being
saturated with Paradise!
You who are God’s
lowly
poor
servant,
you deserve nothing;
yet you do deserve Paradise!
Set the bar that high,
and higher still!
Reach for it,
now!
Since now
is the only time
you can choose
to reach for it!
But beware!
After the flood
of honeymoon bliss and awe
will come
the demons
of disappointments
heartaches,
and broken trusts
of unmet yearnings past!
“Never again
will I open my heart
to such suffering,”
you said.
And so you
resigned yourself,
you settled,
you contented yourself
with a shack
in the middle of the desert
of your life.
No running water of love
only a few drops
here and there,
enough to get by;
but at least
the gaping wounds
were shut!
So many days went by,
so many years!
But now, your shack
scheduled for bulldozing,
perhaps today,
perhaps next month,
next year.
Do you remember
the nightingale?
Can you still hear its song?
You are no longer
the lost bleeding child
you once were,
alone, with just
the shards of your
shattered dreams
slicing through your heart.
Now you can see
that where what once
were only fragments of glass
ripped flesh
crimson corpuscles
and shrieks knifing through the darkness
has always been
your Beloved’s
all-inclusive face,
has always been
your Beloved’s touch and embrace!
So if you remember
even a note
of the nightingale’s melody,
if you can still
taste the fragrance
of the rose
and the jasmine,
let them rekindle
the longing!
You are of age now,
you can come into this tavern,
the door is open wide!
You know
you can sit at a well-worn corner
of the bar,
and sip
one drop, one ache, at a time.
You know,
there is nothing here,
but your Beloved,
inviting you
to this ancient tango,
inviting you
to Paradise!