Peter Newton

Follow Your Bliss

The man-made pond is edged with moss that flourishes in the late-day shade. Soon enough, a skittish wasp spirals in, landing in the middle of a lily pad. It taps gingerly along the greenery before sensing what it came for. Together, we drink in the liquid light. Oppressive as the sun is, I feel it less so as I watch the insect restore itself. The wasp’s segmented body pulses at a measured pace. All energy and air. So this is how to breathe, I think. At ease, unthreatened by whatever menace surrounds you.

shock & awe

It’s the kind of calm Joseph Campbell sought out as his Holy Grail, that boundless resource that is, and has always been. “Follow your bliss,” was the big tag-line of the time. The bumper stickers abounded in our small college town. I remember listening to him tell the audience of students to “knock.” “Just knock,” he said, pantomiming the action in the thin air between him standing on stage and us, a sea of untested twenty-somethings. We were spiritually starved sponges desperate for wisdom we could trust. “Knock and the universe opens a door where you least expect one”, he explained, stepping slowly across the stage. “Opportunity doesn’t knock, “ he turned to face us. “You do. Opportunity answers.”

the unwinnable war's

I remember how deeply I believed him. And the hum of my fellow followers, equally enamored. Looking down, I see the wasp walking the length of the bench beside me. It stops, pivots, as if to take a question from the audience.

mission accomplished

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About the Author

Peter Newton is the author of several books in the Japanese short form traditions of haiku, haibun, and tan renga. His newest book of haiku, Glide Path (Red Moon Press, 2022), won second place in the 2023 Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards. His most recent collection of haibun is Part-Time Gods (Snapshot Press, 2022).

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