Whatever Happened to Joy? [triple sonnet]
“Whatever happened to joy?”, said the voice
inside my head, as I surveyed the crowd
before me who had made their fateful choice.
[That they were created, they disavowed].
Does being human mean one has to play
at being “god” (although we live within
a fallen world enslaved to disarray
& always pining 4 what might-have-been)?
The starting point for joy occurs when one
can see through cracks and all the tiny holes
to what lies startlingsomely just beyond
the curtain we have draped around our souls.
If we could just for once tear down the wall,
a blinding flash of Light our hearts will call!
“What has befallen joy?” [voice from above].
“I don’t refer to superficial glee
or that hormonal bomb we call ‘in love’,
or phoney sleigh bell season’s false ésprit!
If we, despite the horrors of this realm,
and all its disconnectedness and pain,
are not by desolation overwhelmed
and still know joy, we’ve found the Golden Chain.
That chain I speak of is not one which binds.
Instead, it acts as lifeline through the fence
of long-forgottenness — that fog which blinds,
inuring us with desperate self-defence.
For only when we leave our “selves” behind
will we with joy (and wisdom) be aligned.
So where on Earth can joy be found today?
Must we into its crust dig far and deep
before our anomie will go away
and no more feel the constant need to weep?
How can the hearting human find that joy
which defies a normal explanation
and will our petty-mindedness destroy —
granting an invincible foundation?
The answer to these questions is not hard
if we are willing to be undermined
by Truth divine and all our dross discard,
then at God’s feet our egos leave behind.
True joy can only deep within be known
once we have bowed before that Sacred Throne.
© Alan Morrison, 2019
The Naked Troubadour 
Sep 16, 2019 at 4:58 am
If anything is a birthright, it is joy! Thank you for this triple treat.
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