The Central Passion by Erika Jong

The Central Passion
What is the central passion
of a life?
To please mummy & daddy?
To find a home for their furniture?
To found a family of one's own,
possibly a dynasty?
To fill the world with more books
that have no readers
or books that have too many
& kill
too many trees?
What is the passion
that drives us
as the wind drives
a winged seed?
To reproduce ourselves,
then die?
To meet God once
if only in a dream?
To reach enlightenment
through pain
or pleasure?
Or perhaps just
to question
as I am doing now,
& to teach by questioning. . .
Yes-- this is both passion
& power
enough.

© Erica Mann Jong
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