Waterlily: the practice of pleasure

My favourite author and her newest book recently stirred some religious musings in me. On Nov. 5 I went to the International Festival of Authors in Toronto to hear Annie Dillard read from For The Time Being. In my hands I clasped a copy of Pilgrim At Tinker Creek, which won her a Pulitzer Prize in 1974. Her soulful respect for the environment, and her use of natural imagery to explore the human spirit, have won my admiration.

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing and watching her, my spiritual and literary idol transformed into a stand-up comedian before me. The Toronto Star quoted her as saying, in an interview the previous evening, "I spend time with monks in New Mexico and like all the really religious people I have ever met they are just in stitches all the time."

At the end I bought a copy of the new book and stood in line to get both volumes signed. When I reached her table I handed the newer one to her, holding the older one up to emphasize what I wanted to say. The experience inspired me to write this poem.
 

Meeting Annie Dillard

This book!
I was reading this book
during the most frightening time of my life.
It kept me alive
and it kept me believing in something.
I wanted you to know that.

You stop signing
reach with your noble writing hand
and place it on mine
like a blessing.
Starstruck as I am
I do not flinch.

(I can guess
which matters to you more
--a Pulitzer
or the soul of one stranger.)

Later I look to see
what you have written--
"for Van,
This book!"

Few religious writers can talk about creation or a higher power the way Dillard does without imposing their personal dysfunctions on the image.

Last year my heart was stirred by the poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi, so I decided to further explore the views of Sufism, Rumi's mystical brand of Islam. I purchased a book by Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Heart of Sufism. The first few chapters impressed me. There must be some good in an ideology that seeks "to bring about a better understanding among individuals, nations, and races."

I disagreed on some points, but was willing to study the whole and gain a better understanding of the context. Then I stumbled over a chapter called "The Alchemy of Happiness." Khan says, "Pleasure is only an illusion of

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