Gnostics on Trial

Let us make the test. Say God wants you

to be unhappy. That there is no good.

That there are horrors in store for us

if we do manage to move toward Him.

Say you keep Art in its place, not too high.

And that everything, even eternity, is measurable.

Look at the photographs of the dead,

both natural (one by one) and unnatural

in masses. All tangled. You know about that.

And can put Beauty in its place. Not too high,

and passing. Make love our search for unhappiness,

which is His plan to help us.

Disregard that afternoon breeze from the Aegean

on a body almost asleep in the shuttered room.

Ignore melons, and talking with friends.

Try to keep from rejoicing. Try

to keep from happiness. Just try.

From “100 Great Poems By Women,” edited by Carolyn Kizer (The Ecco Press: 186 pp., $15)