Heaven and Hell

Why do we have to learn about good and evil in this life?

What use is this knowledge in the next life?

If there is no evil in Heaven why do we need to know about it at all?

In the future we will live together

(and with mighty God) for ever.

Now, God is fire, and “Hell is other folk”

(a truth that once a cynic spoke)

so we must learn to be most careful

if we’re to prosper in that state eternal.

Heaven and Hell are the same country:

both are God’s proximity. Whether we

are damned or blessed depends on our soul’s state.

A feast is set, but will we fight

over it’s spread – or each other fète, and so full sate

our hunger for what’s best? A hearth is stoked, but will its heat

for us be vital energy or else vile enthalpy our souls to sublimate?

The desert bush was not consumed

by God’s self revelation.

The Jewish threesome stood secure and sound

within the conflagration

which was lit by whim

of Persian King’s decree; for they

were tended by the seraphim

with flaming wings: angelic serpent fey.

The lake of sulphurous flame of which we’re told

can be the purging fire of the divine Eros

– which smelts the slag of sin from spiritual gold –

or else the doom of souls that are no more than dross.

In this world we are remote from God’s fierce heat,

and can train ourselves by stubborn perseverance

in works of love, until we’re holy and complete

and ready to endure for endless days God’s countenance.