A JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY IRISH & IRISH AMERICAN AFFAIRS 
Spring 2019 / VOL. 19 ISSUE 1

Purgatory To Paradise

 

Let us shed our thoughts of hallucinogenic chemistry

Rather follow Dante into Paradise via Purgatory

 

Where pleasant pastel colors reign

Absent tortures and persistent pain

We trod into dawn from dark night

End finally into radiant sun bright

 

We meet political figures and poets

Who tell of Trinity steps

And of seven sins to purge

All in allegories and symbols of church

 

Rome, presented as a model of community

Florence, a den of gluttony

Tales by Sordello

Of Italy as a bordello

 

Examples of arrogance and pride

From history and myths worldwide

About martyrs to poverty, humility and generosity

We learn how to attain heaven through poetry

 

Beatrice in bright beauty appears

Inducing the pilgrim to copious tears

Poor Virgil must retreat

Other guides pick up the beat

 

Seven nymphs encircle Beatrice as a garland

St. Patrick claimed all were in Ireland

The air is flooded with songs of love

Without it no one can soar above

 

Silver and gold keys open mystic gates

While souls eagerly await their glorious fates

Heaven is now within reach

Oh, if those wondrous scenes would teach!

 

    - By Elliot O. Lipchik, Irish American Post poetry editor