woman ascending the staircase

his eyes scoured the night

searching for eyes to see him

to watch yet not heed his hips

a secret wish his lips held tight

of the woman cloaked in shame and fear

within the armor of his manfulness

yet, as from a shadowed edge

a place beyond his sight and dance

i saw the one act of his nervous heart

the one his buddies did not catch:

his woman, free for a moment's glace

as he ascended the royal stairs of chance

*Thoughts of Alan Jones:

  -Penthos (compunction) frees the soul from the lying and the pretense that tend to dominate us when we are frightened, anxious or insecure.  It is also known as the gift of tears.  In the East, the sacrament of confession is sometimes called "the Mystery of the Second Baptism."  The truly penitent is "baptized" again in his or her own tears, which represent the tears of truth and insight breaking in and flooding the soul with new life. 

  -The gift of tears is concerned with living in and with the truth and with the new life that the truth always brings.  The tears are like the breaking of waters of the womb before the birth of a child.

  -Seeing without the possibility of transformation would be hell.

  -When we can see purely we can also act purely.  "Purity of heart" begins too happen when a person is willing to be pierced through with the arrows of compunction.