Hayden Carruth: "Ecstasy"

For years it was in sex and I thought
this was the most of it
            so brief
                    a moment
or two of transport out of oneself
                    or
in music which lasted longer and filled me
with the exquisite wrenching agony
of the blues
        and now it is equally
transitory and obscure as I sit in my broken
chair that the cats have shredded
by the stove on a winter night with wind and snow
howling outside and I imagine
the whole world at peace
                at peace
and everyone comfortable and warm
the great pain assuaged
                    a moment
of the most shining and singular sensual gratification.

"Ecstasy" by Hayden Carruth, from Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey: Poems, 1991-1995. © Copper Canyon Press, 2000.

Image credit: "Where She Spent Most of Her Days," canvas print by Mike Savad (originally color).