Haitian-born poet Jerrice J. Baptiste directs us to trust the renewal and healing properties of radiance. As days now begin their slow but steady lengthening and our hours of daylight grow longer, Jerrice’s poem “If In Search of Bliss” serves a checklist of steps to gather that warmth and goodness within us. “This poem is about connecting to the light of the soul when doubts rush in about the power of the Divine. Perhaps with all that is happening around our world, one can easily begin to doubt love and connection to our natural blissful state,” Jerrice informed The Dewdrop. She concluded, “This poem is an instructive list of simple things we can do to maintain our joy, peace and bliss. It calls us to trust and does so through the natural world around us.”
If In Search of Bliss
Rotate your soul to the sun
clockwise each hour.
Let it collapse in sunrays.
Your fingers know where to knead
heavy burdens of your lover’s shoulders.
Why do you doubt commitment of light?
Stand once again at your altar
where sunbeams pirouette.
Dress it in white lace.
Center the bouquet
of white calla lilies
in a tall vase.
Open your window for the hummingbird.
Why do you doubt the visit of the red song?
Jerrice J. Baptiste is a poet born in Haiti, the author of nine books. Her poetry has been published and forthcoming in The Dewdrop, Urthona: Buddhism & Art, Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & The Arts, Shambhala Times, Artemis Journal, The Yale Review, Mantis, Poetica Review, The Banyan Review, Kosmos Journal, and The Caribbean Writer. Jerrice was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for 2024; as Best of the Net for 2022 by Blue Stem. Her poetry and collaborative song-writing are on the Grammy award nominated album- Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti.
Originally posted at The Dewdrop
