Forthwith Light Ethereal:
First of things—Quintessence Pure.²
It’s a question of seeing so much Clearer:
Of doing to things what Light does to them—³
Praise song for walking forward into that Light!⁴
Gold Light in blind love does not
Distinguish one surface from another.⁵
Peel back the folds over your heart and Shine into it
The strongest light that streams from your Eyes—⁶
Light Dissolves inseparably into us.⁷
Let me not shame their Sublime
Deportments drilled bright,
Beckoning Etruscan Invitation
Toward light!⁸
There is always light,
If only we’re Brave enough to see it—
If only we’re brave enough to Be it.⁹
Perceiving above the darkness of
Ignorance, the higher light in the Sun—
As the higher light within the Heart: the
Bright source of Light & Life among the Gods,
We reach the highest light—yea—
The Highest Light!¹⁰
¹ Maggie Nelson, Bluets
² John Milton, Paradise Lost
³ Ursula K. Le Guin, To See
⁴ Elizabeth Alexander, Praise Song for the Day
⁵ Denise Levertov, Six Variations
⁶ Laura Hershey, How to Write a Poem
⁷ Padmasambhava tr. Gyurme Dorje, The Tibetan Book of the Dead
⁸ Emily Dickinson, Unto Like Story
⁹ Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb
¹⁰ Chandogya-Upanishad 3.17.7