Bliss

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

“Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible Sun within us.” ~ Thomas Browne, “Urne Burial”

The mystics down through Wordsworth, Blake and Vaughan

To Emerson and Walden’s waves taught all

Of us to live as if there were a dawn

Within us, life as pure as in a tall

And unseen sun inside us every day

From morning into evening’s light, beyond

That twilight, far past deepest midnight’s sway,

Far deeper than a mystic thinker’s pond.

Plotinus changed New England (and the world).

America returned to visions of

Saint Augustine, a City Awed and swirled

With wider married souls of breath and love.

  These taught us, taught us all, despite surprise

    “Eternity was in our lips and eyes.”

~ September 12, 2025