"Surprised by joy . . . "
Christopher Bernard
[Total Pages: 2]
Bernard Page 1

To hear a musical recording by the author, visit the Multimedia section.

The tone of it is the hardest thing to grasp --
     a deeply gratified tone,
         as if a god did live
   and brushed your forehead with his fingers,
                 of deeply restrained jubilation,
         the smile that won't abandon your face,
                     despite the malediction
                         on your happiness
                        by your closest friends
    (to be happy without us -- what a disgrace!)

                         but
                           once grasped
                              and twisted


    between your hands
                    hard (oh softly!),
         it is not so much a disgrace
                    as a taste
                 (the only one to which
               wholeheartedly to betray
                           a Credo
                   and save the religious hoax
                         of all its blind mystery)
                              of the one true paradise:
                                    between the cinder
                                          and the ice,
                                       the pure contentment
                                                 of the ash
                                              still trembling from the
                                                        great
                                                     conflagration.