A Procession of Colorful Turtles (Part One of Four)*

The Sin of Seeing

(The Seventh Decoration)

 

-U-

 

The Best to Bloom[1]

 

My lady was the first to bloom, the last to pass away;

She lingered in a time of love and glorified love’s day

 

There was a lesson in her life, a story in her stem

That spoke of angels in our midst

And how we might be them

 

She lived to see a thousand blooms,

A thousand joys of birth,

 

A thousand lives

Of consequence,

 

As each joy left the Earth

 

She was a mother to all things

That blossomed near the lake:

 

The best to bloom and live so long,

But for a garden's sake.

Fishing for Crocodiles

In the Land of Dreams

 

Greetings from the Gardener!

 

I am Rose Immaculate, the maternal essence of divine grace, and the one spoken of in “The Best to Bloom.” The telling line is the one about my having lived “but for a garden's sake.” It is so true, and quite honestly, I am here, not for Paris's sake, but for the Garden’s sake again. The material realm has many awful flaws, but I shall always love and look after the Garden because that is where the dear ones are. Though I can no longer live among them, my passion is so substantial that I can sometimes intervene on love’s behalf.

 

-P-

 

The Wreath

 

(To Thrive Where You Have Fallen)

 

One day, I was plucked

From the rose bush

By a pensive Lady

 

And joined with others of my kind

To form a special garden wreath �"

 

Then she blessed us all together

And tossed us in a gentle swirl -

 

But as we spun,

Each blossom fell

And came to thrive

Where it had fallen.

 

And now, I have the easy task of telling you about a dream Paris had around the time of his father’s death, even though he swears it belongs to a recondite literary invention he calls, Jean Ami. But who dreamed the dream is less important than its meaning, as its theme resonates throughout “The Sin of Seeing.” Also, a familiarity with this dream’s particulars will help you to understand an unusual idea Paris has about the nature of worldly experience �" an idea that runs throughout Pilgrim Heart itself.

 

Song of Rose Immaculate

 

I am Creation’s rarest flower:[2]

I am commanded to love!

 

And since a heart can be loved only when it is known,

The dreams that express the nature of that heart,

Must be acknowledged and taken in forever.

 

I embrace their special wonder

And share even in their sin of seeing;

For neither faith nor spiritual wisdom prospers

Without a reasonable understanding of dreams[3]

 

This is so because dreams are the hieroglyphs

Envisioned by the One who first imagined

The universe in which they occur.