I hope, I hope 
That you find
Your version of paradise 
With babbling milky streams
Sweetened with honey 
Dripping from trees 
There are no bees
(They sting you see)
In a vaulted other world 
May it be your vision unfurled 

But I have this feeling
Visceral, profound
This tug of awareness
In my gut
That the body so righteous 
And ritual bound 
Has lost touch 
With the heart and the spine 
They lie dormant intertwined 
In the periphery
Of the small intestine 

But that’s just me 
I’m not saintly 
Not a bit, no not a whit 
But I have learnt to be a friend
I now know how to sit
With what lies deep within
My spine, my gut and my heart
That trio beating a path 
Clear and bright 
That despite 
Myopic eyes 
I can see and I can ply 
So I can make this very life
My living, breathing paradise 

And so I hope that you too
At some blessed point
Find your heaven as it awaits 
With its resplendent pearly gates
I hope that you 
Can grasp that thread
That quickening, vital line
That dangles down
Into mosques and synagogues 
And altars divine 
Leading you to paradise.