Reflections of Paradise

1

There was a song before this song

was sung. There was a rhyme

Before these words were ever heard.

There was a place and time

Before we found our here and now,

And there was poetry

Before we wrote our poem down.

Poetry precedes the poem, as

Creation beats within a mother’s heart

Before her child is born, as from the start

What is or is about to happen has

Forever been. Behold the poem of

A rising sun or of the world that turns

Towards its fire. Behold the fire that burns

In lovers long before they fall in love.

Behold the love. Behold the long before

And look for more. Look for the energy

Of dreamers who once flickered in the dark

Like pilots to the dawn. Keep looking for

The spirit pre-igniting every spark

Of love, of mine for you and yours for me.

2

Once one is one and only one: the perfect unity...

Of love, of mine for you and yours for me,

Of late I haven’t had too much to say

 but I’ve been thinking lately, night and day,

Of how we fell in love; of the unity

Of falling; of the feeling constantly

Of love’s simplicity: once one is one;

Of our conviction to what we’d begun;

and of our hope for continuity.

We found the lesson of a braided cord

And tied the hasta milip to our vows;

We bought the most expensive diamond ring

That we and all our credit could afford,

And with a single mind did we espouse

This long traditioned bond, this poetry.

3

There was a song before this song was sung...

This long traditioned bond, this poetry

Precedes us like the crown precedes the king

Who nods to everyone and everything

Before him. Higher than all royalty,

Positioned at the birth of history,

Before humanity began to sing

Of country and of social structuring,

God’s angels sang to us the poetry

Of lovers. Thus creation was for us

Created, as we’ve been, will ever be

Enchanted by the music of our making,

And thus we ever shall, indeed we must,

Sustain our beating hearts beyond the breaking

Rules of individuality.

4

One unexpressed, no more, no less than one,

will always be itself, the integer of individuality...

Rules of individuality:

1. One marches to the rhythm of one’s heart.

2. One strikes out on one’s own without regard

for anything another has to say.

3. One finds one’s way. In time one will get by

without the other, and in time the hurt

will turn to numbness even as the heart

grows cold and indifferent. Inevitably

4. One beats a drum that’s distant and devoid

of poetry, and then eventually

the beating stops. Another heart is broken.

These are the rules that keep the self-employed

Indentured to themselves; yet this, the token

Cadence of one who dreams of breaking free.

5

One added to one more is two, a plain duality...

The cadence of one who dreams of breaking free,

Stringing his notes together to complete

The measures of his heart’s determined beat

Of human bonding, singing that he may be

Heard by another heart’s humanity,

Echoes across the lonely marching field.

The cadence of one with passions unrevealed,

Finding the mystic chords of memory

Deep in his soldier’s soul so long concealed

And camouflaged, singing that he may be

More than one sounding off and keeping time,

Echoes across the lonely marching field.

Now hear my echo, looking for its rhyme

Across resounding fields of poetry.

6

One from itself is none, the self defying gravity...

“Across resounding fields of poetry

I call your name. Across resounding fields

I will declare the love I have for you.

I will pronounce this love to all the world

And I will hear your name return to me.

“Across resounding fields of poetry

I will pronounce this love to all the world.

I will declare the love I have for you.

I call your name across resounding fields

And I will hear your name return to me.

“My love, you are the reason I can sing

At all; you are the song within my heart;

You are the beat by which I am alive

and every rhythm in my living soul.

“My love, you are the reason I can sing;

You are the beat by which I am alive

At all; you are the song within my heart

and every rhythm in my living soul...”

“My love, you are the reason I can sing

across resounding fields of poetry

at all; you are the song within my heart,

the love I will pronounce to all the world;

you are the beat by which I am alive,

I call your name across resounding fields,

that I would hear your name return to me

with every rhythm in my living soul.”

7

Every rhythm in my living soul,

Ever since I first became aware

Of rhythm resonating in the air

Around me, beats the passions that I feel

For you, and I am moved beyond control.

Everything I sing the wind will carry,

Every rhythm resonates to where

You are, and I begin to feel your soul

In harmony with mine, as from the start,

As all that is about to happen has

Forever been: two lovers meet in time

And find they share a purpose, find their hearts

In synchronicity and find their rhyme,

As poetry precedes the poem, as....

There was a song before this song

was sung. There was a rhyme

Before these words were ever heard.

There was a place and time

Before we found our here and now,

and there was poetry

Before we wrote our poem down.