I boarded the ferry, sailed,
and landed in a peninsula
between ocean and bay
to visit beloved friends:
Art, Music, and Joy.
They felt the pain of loss,
and I thought I could comfort them.
But I also felt the sorrow of lostness,
and it was they who comforted me.
Music and Joy strummed the guitar
and sang their song for me
in the sunlit afternoon
as we contemplated
the ocean blue of the Atlantic
meet the sky blue of Heaven
in the horizon.
“What I most want in life,”
I confessed, opening my heart,
“is to water the basil and peppermint
and geraniums in my garden
and smell their fragrance.
I want to watch the bougainvillea,
roses and orchids bloom.
To walk to my parents’ home
and embrace them,
to visit my sisters and play.
To create and nourish
a peaceful, joyful home–
one from which to go
on walks in forests and mountains
and on swims in rivers and oceans;
a home to which to return
for comfort and safety,
dance and good food,
tenderness and love;
a home in which to welcome
and host my closest friends,
the ones who nourish my soul;
a home in which to be
a truthful, sincere lover.”
Angel-faced Joy smiled,
showing her four tiny teeth.
“Go home and nourish that life”,
red-headed Music advised me.
Blue-eyed Art pondered
in silence what I’d said.
Then she looked at me
with the sharp, clear light
of her lovely sapphires
and simplified the expression
of my desires:
“What you want is to be close to your Heart.”
Daniel G. Campos 