Gregory Orr: Untitled ["If deepest grief is hell"]

If deepest grief is hell,
When the animal self
Wants to lie down
In the dark and die also. . .

If deepest grief is hell,
Then the world returning
(Not soon, not easily)
Must be heaven.

The joke you laughed at
Must be heaven
Or the funny thing
The cat did
At its food dish.

Whatever
Guides you back
To the world.

That dark so deep
The tiniest light
Will do.

Untitled ["If deepest grief is hell"] by Gregory Orr, from Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved

(Copper Canyon Press, 2005).

Art credit: "Bowl Cat," photograph by Ben Torode.