-- A Place of Unknowing --

John Herlihy

Oh, the bliss of retreating to a place of unknowing,

To escape all the miseries in the place of knowing.

The door of the mind fully opened and unhinged,

Wiped clear of all the memories irrevocably singed.

True, a case can be made that the unknown haunts;

There in the corridors of the mind, its mystery taunts.

We drag baggage with the knowledge we pull in tow;

Take comfort in the useless things we choose to know.

Oh, the bliss of retreating to a place of unknowing,

To escape all the miseries in the place of knowing.

A clean tabula rasa free of all preconceived ideas,

That we have gathered meticulously over the years.

All of the terrible memories suddenly wiped clean,

Lost in the misunderstanding of all that they mean.

All our familiar surroundings simply stripped bare,

In a rare place of seclusion, trying thru mist to stare.

Oh, the bliss of retreating to a place of unknowing,

To escape all the miseries in the place of knowing.

To lie content without any thoughts to consider,

All the illusions, passions, dreams in life we fritter.

At first a sense of loneliness with nothing to see,

Followed by sweet feelings of liberation, oh so free.

We spend our lives seeing things large and small,

Yet very little that we encounter holds us in thrall.

Oh, the bliss of retreating to a place of unknowing,

To escape all the miseries in the place of knowing.

Inside velvet folds in the drapes of night’s darkness;

Inside the shinning brilliance of the day’s lightness.

Imagine the serenity found in a cloud of unknowing,

With all the threads of a mystery there for the sewing.

Akin to the silence uncomfortable until it is truly heard,

Arrival of dawn’s light interrupted by tweets of a bird.

Oh, the bliss of retreating to a place of unknowing,

To escape all the miseries in the place of knowing.

Emptied of all the knowledge that we think we know,

Unknowing opens on scenic vistas whose visions glow.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Tuesday 2 March 2021