Enlightenment feels like a weight off the bones

Enlightenment feels like a weight off the bones
The sudden death of muscular tension
Recognizing ghostly hungers like old friends
And loving them toughly.
You become your own patron saint,
your own mendicant and supplicant combined
and in each demon and angel see a cosmos reflected
holding you chalice-like in Indra's quantum foam.


It is to populate the world of atoms with heroes and gods
And to rip all Scripture asunder in the torrent of the frontal lobe
Our eyes can only open as wide as our minds and hearts


But if we are bold
we can embrace without grasping
this life that cherishes and churns us
and all that may lie beyond without drawing inane maps of unglimpsed shores


And if we are wise
We can celebrate every fold and every crease of life where others would plug in the iron
Right up until we ourselves are just another memory to celebrate


And if we are compassionate
we can embrace one another without grasping
& beckon each other on the spiral dance of discovery and death


Scatter flowers or ashes as you will - enlightenment is big enough for both.
All evil things lose their power, and all good things their pompous prestige
for what cannot change?
Trust not in the judgmental, for who has earned milk without a kick,
honey without a sting?
And wisdom, in enlightened eyes, lies in every iota of Aldebaran's light,
The colors of deep-sea firefly fish,
Detritus trodden doggedly into inner-city sidewalks,
and in void.


Enlightenment takes nothing very seriously.
Enlightenment takes nothing very seriously.


Joshua  Gannon-Salomon
March 2012