Hope, sturdy beast

Hope, sturdy beast

Become hopeless, You say, instilling hope
in a pilgrim's heart -- paradise within reach

and power.  Hope, sturdy beast of burden,
bearing souls and suffering

toward the gates, must be abandoned,
You say, reinless among the dunes --

a fly in the ointment, oil in the lamp
whose flame prevents our eyes

from growing accustomed to the dark.
Tiny circles of illumination

to which we cling (except where we are --
our shadows deeper than the vastness beyond).

When the desire to know the Truth
pales before ecstatic wonder,

surrender gains a foothold, truth darts
from the window, a winsome bird.

Only the moment exists, every moment
sliced thin and quick enough to hold no hope,

nor truth, no angle of light -- only love.  Only love,
You say.  Only love, You say.  Only love.

O child of God, exchange the emptiness
of hope for the fiery annihilation of Love.