How Can One Blush?

CWK

*Credit to George Sand for the idea and phraseology of this poem.

Once my heart was captured,
I stopped, staggered, like a man in a sad story
surprised by a turn of comic rapture.
Straightway, raison was shown the door:
deliberately, and with a sort of frantic joy,

and I was the man who was once again the boy;

full to the brim with life: life worth living,

and I remembered everything, and more.
I accepted everything, I believed everything,
without struggle, without suffering,
and the song awoke, and then the poetry,
and for the first time since the flood came,
I found myself composing, and singing,

and I could feel,within, the symphony:
a new song. And I had a new name.

The Restless regrets, I framed
behind dark glass, in cardboard bins,
and stored them in the attic of a former friend.
Armed with my new name, without false shame,
I became an innocent; free of crimes; free of blame.

My heart raced, and I felt freedom like before,

but a freedom greater after a slavery endured;

I was true as true, and forever sure;

I was busy, but never rushed,

and I was rich for being poor,

and happy, so happy, I might have blushed --
But, how can one blush for what one adores?