heaven isn’t a place / art of the heart / the soul redeemed

because when you love unconditionally 
is when you arrive not at bill gates 
but at real pearly gates 
where your place isn't a state 
of vatican embezzlement 
but of true affection and amusement
and of honest kindnesses 
expressed like the best espresso you ever sipped
being your lips that day on dublin river 
and so this christmas i hope to find you on stockholm isle
and maybe we spend a while together 
where everyone can see us holding our palms out 
not in surrender or white flag 
but in the glorious colours of blue and yellow 
one a sanctuary from all that is bad 
and one fighting on behalf of us daily
by the minute and to the second 
never seconded from anything that wasn't a deep belief 
in the fact that putin is not mad 
but just entirely and completely bad 
without redemption and without ascension 
and only awaiting 
if some day a justice of a natural kind 
may be delivered duly:
the descent to the darkest embers 
of unending fires 

and so all that's being left for me to say
is how much i love you
and always shall 
and if you cannot show yourself now
or cannot yet 
or may not any more  
then there will always be a time 
i will find time for you 
when you can finally hold my hand again 
and make me the happiest man who ever walked this rock
proud and tall and amongst it all 
because that's what this is all about dearest soulmate of forever 
where our shared and intrinsic souls 
our fabulously intertwined souls 
become arts of the heart 
and our work then finds itself never-ending  

and our life is always of utility now 
even as distances make the kiss on the lips
quite impractical for the moment 
still one day 
we may one day say 
it's time to hug each other 
in beautiful lacy embrace 
NOT of the poison-laced juliet or romeo
but being just the moments when utterly chilled together 
on common sofa 
we end our days in an uncommonly handsome conversation 
of a meeting of minds and body
night after day
and in all our joyous beams not of foundation or construction 
but actually just of sun 
where your eyes glisten and shine with happiness 
and mine weep and sob 
as finally i am accepted exactly for what i am 
by the only woman 
who knew what made me right again 

just that state out there (if you're ever so lucky 
and if fortune blesses you 
and if your life is one of fortunate outcomes 
and not of war nor conflicts horrific)
but that state 
that one which makes you unconditionally beloved 
without further recourse to the cruel
and without further imposition 
of those gruels of incarceration i suffered 
once upon a crime 
but just a hand again 
a hand outstretched 
never clasping or grasping 
but compassionate and warm 
and slender-fingered 
and SO elegantly yours after all

and so i do await that moment 
one day in the near future 
when maybe soon 
and if not then 
well ... then maybe later
you may grace my presence 
and give me the notion and opportunity 
to remind you 
of all that you have meant to me 
and mean verily still
not out of illness or infirmity 
but simply the veracity of knowing 
the soul IS where it all lies 
in truth:
a very human redemption ... for us all