Sitting near a guttering candle in inert dark
it feels as if earth itself had fallen away
no matter no form
no beginning no end

My self had lost itself in soul
and soul in all that dark stillness simply existed
asking nothing neither warm nor cold
neither at rest nor in motion but soul was
like an ultramarine perennial in Hades

To absorb it through the mental pores
requires a moment when all wall hangings
have been taken away
and just this flower remains
then a subtle monumental beauty occurs
overwhelming sense

So soul must keep what our human mind leaves behind
the way a child who shows a most wonderful gritty shell
then told it is most common
in inarticulate distress abandons it on the sand