Hearthstone

Gather around, friends,

To the hearthstone,

Beside shady fields

Where lonely fiends have been

Known to roam

Among the screaming

And under flying things.

It is here that we will find it,

And it’s here that

We will all be forgiven

Under the hearthstone.                                      

 

Love has been known

To redouble its efforts here,

And within bowed head or no,

Ugly or pure heart,

It takes gentle steps

On creaking, broken stairs

To show us the way into the light,

Into a realm of integration

That defies the keenest demarcation

 

We have a dire need

To vilify and complicate everything,

But near the hearthstone

All can be relatively simple.

If we are old enough to die,

Then we’ll die,

If not,

Then we will go on living.

Good and evil

And life and death

Are little more than black and white fish

That dance with each other

In their own way to the same strange tune.