Far away from the maddening crowd

 

Far away from

tiresome illusions; 

the rancor and bitterness of

abundant moral rigidities;

where love’s crazy preambles

push one against the other

for mad passion leading to

loveless entanglements and relationships;

where the best plan can be

to gulp down humiliation

in a single swallow;

the dormant grief seeking exit

through illusionary pathways;

helpless, exhausted mind

ironing and re-ironing the past;

ensnared in custom’s captivity;

sickened souls infested with bugs of gloom;

ruled by the confidantes of whispering shadows;

the embittered paradise

with its wreckage of social weight;

where one ought to

learn to love practically and survive;

the ghosts of guilt

soaping and cleaning the dusted conscience;

where one’s always pursued

by an unknowable shadow

with its secret impulses of

tenacious longing,

catching one in a blinding flash of immaturity;

where what strikes as love

is usually an assemblage of conveniences—

name, fame, home, hearth, security and wealth;

where the mistress of fate

rules with fantasies of sin and whispers,

‘You can be happy in love many times’;

Where the custom of normal love

is simply for routine use;

where dreams are always shifting away

from the zone of possibility.

 

Away from all this

wreckage of social weight,

Away from the

cuffs and collars of pretensions,

Here in this restorative solitude,

The seed of joy sprouting

from the mystery-shrouded soil,

Here I feel love without lies,

Here fears reconcile to refreshed vitality

and the soul feels pure love,--

the one primary love

that is immune to all contagions.