Prayer

                                                                                                                           Ascending

                                                                                                                      From beyond all torment

                                                                                                                 A heretical prayer

                                                                                                            I can hear it

                                                                                                       I can feel it

                                                                                                  Somehow

                                                                                             Almost touching

                                                                                        Beyond the fragile veil of awareness

                                                                                   Of my all-too-human consciousness

                                                                              In the deepest layers

                                                                         Buried

                                                                    A built-in aspiration

                                                               For fusion

                                                          For love

                                                     For warmth

                                                A kind of primordial longing

                                           A strange form of angst

                                     At any given moment

                                I can anticipate its gushing out

                           I can feel it lurking…threatening

                      Beyond all hope and despair

                 Deep within my inner self

            Beyond all doubts

     Beyond all illusions

Beyond all fears

March 28, 1997

Note: The poem can be read from the top-down and vice versa.