‘Tis often said ignorance must be bliss
How so, if happiness stays remiss?
Spotting ignorance is embarking on
A journey to self-knowledge, spot on
Without ignorance, no point of reference
For insight and vice versa for science
Yet the unschooled seem contented
To the point of envy by the learned
Whose torments incite more learning
Which expose yet more ignorance
So is it better to be ignorant of joys
Or get acquainted with inner throes?
To each is afflicted with an addiction
The yearning for knowledge, not fiction
Never to satiate, never to renounce
And the contentment with crudeness
Whose bliss disdains copious slog
Take your pick, but shun insight hazed by smog
Happiness can elude even when we know
Worse yet when with us, seeds of doubt we sow
In a blink, gone is the bliss of the known
Fleeting state, often never to return
Left in memory’s recesses, reality ablaze
Leaving one perplexed, if naively dazed
Perchance the answer may well lie
In impulses that tamper with life
When calm waters are muddied
Happiness awakens myriad qualms
About its very existence to dislodge the calm
Fearing that happiness may no longer jam
Storms, serenities each other may precede
Or succeed, but together are never decreed
Yet the ignorance that begets bliss
Will disperse joy much like a kiss
Blown in the wind ‘n away it drifts
To an eternal emptiness all in a jiff
Were there a secret to joy’s chemistry
Potions of it would solve the mystery
It is real but for the humans that covet
It knowing one day, they will hurl it like a comet
To forever crave, but never to relive it
O, Happiness, let me worship thee in peace
To have and to hold in eternal embrace
Inner gales to contain and life to face
With heart, smiles, love and grace
Even if thou art shall then depart
Memories of good fortune apart
Enduring in lieu of joys long gone
Yet when the end arrives, will it all matter?
Are the learned dead happy and immortal?
If they were, should they not know it?
If they did, they could not have perished!
Death the leveler afflicts both
The learned and untaught much the same
… Like an equal opportunity boss
©Alwi Shatry, All Rights Reserved, June 13, 2017