My friend, a portal to Truth

Through the variously same accordion
and unaffectingly agreeable voices
over Habanera beats
floating in the window
of my August bedroom,
I try to remember you,

and why you were so great.

You who overwhelmed my mind
in so many of its Parisian moments,

Who made me understand,
in my sad but wizened heart,
that you were a very rare Portal

to a Universe

of the ecstasy of
existence in shared Truth—

—The truth of chaos and confusion,

The truth of logic, illusions of sense, local order,

The truth of sensations,
and emotions, essences,

The truth of humility,

The truth of the rightness of friendship,

The truth of individuality
and the futility of universal prescriptions,

The truth of paradox,
internal contradictions,

The truth of pain,
informed discontent,

The truth of joy
where bliss has left,

The truth of the abundance
of laughing matters —

You, who with open arms
of Philadelphia love
welcomed me to peer
into your Window,

And see the colors
of every faint and brilliant hue,

Sensations and new dimensions,
New heights of light and loving,

So that my old universe hovered
with ever-deadening grey in my periphery:

Who are you?

August 2010