(Nightmarish) Short Film

(Nightmarish) Short Film

widower Mycroft Nylund

side-stepping

                refusing Heaven

until the end of Dante’s

Paradise Lost

leans toward the Cezanne

low hanging fruit

                not weakening

from Rexroth’s adjectives

widower Mycroft Nylund

says the angelic ones

                pave roads red

slay the turquoise monsters

                Wallace Stevens

dispatches

arms across his face

                he grieves wonderfully

his afternoon opera depicts

                evanescent symmetry

there is no cure

                for sorrow

**

There is an old Chinese story about a woman who lost her only son to death. In her grief, she visited a Holy man and asked, “What prayers, what magical incantations can you share with me so that I may bring my beloved son back to life?”

He answered, “Fetch me a mustard seed from a house that has never known sorrow. Bring it back to me and with it we will expel the sorrow from your life.”

The mournful woman set off in haste in search of the coveted mustard seed.

She came upon a splendid mansion, rapped on the front door and asked, “I am looking for a house that has never known sorrow. Has your house never known sorrow?  It is very important to me.”

“Our house has known many sorrows.”

The family went on to share all of the tragic happenings they had endured. The woman was agog and decided that who better than she to help this unfortunate family, someone with misfortunes of her own. She stayed awhile to comfort them before carrying on in search of a house that has never known sorrow: except each place she visited housed tale after tale of sadness and hardship. The woman found herself busy ministering peace and comfort to so many others she almost forgot about her quest to for the mustard seed. When it crossed her heart again, she realized that her search for the mustard seed that led her to those in need was the very way she quelled the sorrow of losing her son.

Moral: (especially in times of sorrow) living with the intention to love and serve others is a great and healing power.

Amoria.

Of course, my poem stands ironic against this parable and truth. I thought it would be fun to compare and contrast.

In propinquity,

Nic