David Schloss
THE EARTHLY PARADISE
Is it only in the mind of God?
I used to try to comprehend
The world's geography to attain
The whole creation: lakes, ponds, streams,
Growing into rivers' patternings,
Flowing to oceans, blue through green-
But now I see that paradise
Is beyond the edge of that dream,
Going past what is to be seen
Between the shades of vegetation
Mapping constant broken designs,
Circles swelling out into gulfs
Of grandeur, holding all together
Within a charmed circumference,
Like the city I was born in,
Its margins, defined spaces, clear lines,
Which, if held totally in mind,
Would be the map of my desire
To transcend or just understand
The exhaustive geometry
Of its unpremeditated plan
And all my love for this world.
