Samples of Poetry and Thought* Page 5
(Index,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8)

Three 'Terse Verses' from Harry Woods Pal

39

The end of the cosmic cycle
Is not bad news. It's not even
Any kind of news at all,
Because we're always in heaven

And what you're so convinced is real
Is not. This is hard to explain.
It can't be grasped by the mind.
The world seems so full of pain

And madness you can't bear to think
That it's just going to get worse,
Much less that it's only a dream.
But those who see the universe

For what it really is, and isn't,
Know that both contentions are true.
Steadily worse, only a dream.
So love it all! What else can you do?

41

To see things as they really are,
To know the Morning Star's a star
And not what telescopes proclaim,
To know what water was, and flame,
Before the chemists came along
And said we were completely wrong,
Said compassion, joy and dread
Were just secretions in the head,
To see the land, the sea and skies
The way they looked through human eyes,
The rainbow, river, moon and sun
When we, the world and God were One.
Those days are gone, beyond recall.

There are two aspects of the Fall.
Two settings for the Fall from Grace:
Eternity, and time and space.
It happens in Eternity--
Eve and Adam, you and me,
The dialogue in paradise,
The snake, the apple and the price--
And Eternity becomes the world, 
The Earth upon which we were hurled:
Where that rebellion of the blest
Is called the Triumph of the West.

And now we're blind. We lost our sight.
There's darkness where there once was light.
It's still the Garden, we're still there,
It lies about us everywhere,
But all we see now, all we find,
Are the facts and figures in our mind.
The given world was not enough:
We looked for more, discovered stuff
Behind, beyond what eyes could see,
And called that stuff reality.
The world that science says is real,
The world that instruments reveal,
A world we cannot see or hear,
Wander, love, respect, revere,
That's where we live now: our reward.
The angel with the flaming sword,
The exiles in their maze of lies
Who feverishly specialize
In finding ways to numb their pain--
Both are us. It's all insane.
What's human suffering but the price
Of discontent in paradise?

-Harry Woods Pal

32

This world is God smiling at me.
In eternity. The eternal smile
On the face of God: that's what I see--
In the petals, the flowering cherry tree,
The embers. Maybe every place.
State of mind meets gift of grace.
I'd been anticipating death, 
Free at last with my last breath.
I think I'll hang around awhile.
I die whenever I see that smile.