The way I conceive of enlightenment in my mind is as follows:

Picture a landscape with many people staring into the sky. The sky is filled with light. Each person looks up at this sky of light. You see a light swirling in each person's head. The light beams up toward the sky. Some beacons of light go higher than others. The very highest merge seamlessly into the infinite sky, an ocean of light.

Whether that infinite light represents everything or nothing is a matter of perspective.

Does merging with that infinite light symbolize enlightenment or death? Fullness or emptiness?

What is the directionality of the light? Is the light shooting toward heaven, or is the light actually shining down from above into the minds of humans?

Or perhaps even this image is suffering from a false contrast. Perhaps everything is light. Or everything is darkness.

Poetry, art, and love are when you are soaring up into the light and trying to communicate your experience back to earth in a way that makes sense, but will always pale in comparison to the blinding barrage.

Enlightenment is climbing steadily higher up your beam of light until finally merging with the infinite light of heaven eternally.

It’s alright if you disagree
Talk to me dismissively
In a minute you’ll be missing me
When I go on a giving spree
Spread forgiveness and philanthropy
Set political dissidents free
Fight for humans globally
Glowing with righteous indignation
I ignite the fiery conflagration
I assemble a mighty congregation
To end divisive dehumanization

I will broaden your perspective
Shortcut your invective
My spirit: infective
My speeches: inflective
My mind: introspective
My method: incentive
My solutions: inventive
My course: corrective
If I die I’ll leave directions
I will write advanced directives
To form an animal collective
That sets a course for correction
Then come back, resurrection

To view the utopia I brought into existence before peacefully returning to a well-earned oblivion

You are the moon
I am the sun

My love does not care about distance
In this instance, space is irrelevant
Erased by my reverence

We chase each other eternally
My internal inferno rages
Separated by fate’s cages

We exist at the same time
Our tryst transcends word and rhyme

Our poetry does not need to be preserved
Love cannot be deserved
Only observed
Or regretfully reserved

So I will follow you
There is naught else that I can do

Are we truly apart
If you live inside my heart

I strike the ground
Sparks fly all around
The sound shatters window panes
Planes fall from the sky
Tall tsunami waves grow higher and higher
Eventually my light will expire but for now my might is an empire
My soul is a vampire
Drinking in the world I admire
Blink and it is gone
So sink into each song
Dive into each moment
Thrive, let it foment
Be alive, be a component
No opponents, only love
You fit into this world like a hand in a glove
Fly high and look down from above
From the bird’s eye, we are all the same
Arbitrary labels, constructs, names
So we can faithfully play the game
That was constructed before we came
Maybe I’m a rebel
Because I would rather revel
Than try to beat another level

I am Hansel
eating breadcrumbs I should leave alone
I am Gretel
unaware of the danger in the candy home
I am the witch
inviting danger in with my dinner
I am a human
a fool, an arrogant sinner

Yet I am also Prometheus
Stealing knowledge from the realm of the divine
Sharing it with every person I can find
Exploring farther into the human mind
Than ever before in the history of humankind

The trees burst forth from the ground
Like the arms of giants
No one is around
So no one hears the sound
That they are making
As they set the earth quaking
Like the silent symphony  
Of a heart breaking

Their fingers trace patterns in the stars
As the arms slowly grow toward heaven
Hoping one day to break free of these bars
To finally escape the earth’s prison

In the constellations they see heroes
Myths created to help the trees cope
With the fact that their chances are zero
And escape is but a foolish hope

But the stories give them purpose
Meaning, faith, and grandeur
Even when but a log heading toward a furnace
They see the start of an adventure

Flow flowing floating floaters
Flying through the air
Floating in the breeze
Filtering through your fingers
Flowing through the trees
Flowing all around
Floating down the river
Flying oh so high
Falling oh so low
Feelings, thoughts, emotions
Full of experience
Flowing consciousness
Flowing down the streams
Forming together, falling apart
Filling the earth
Floundering, faltering, but always flowing
Flow flowing through the field
Flowing far and wide
The flow of the human condition
Full, overflowing, boundless
Finite infinities
The flow of the human life
Flights of fancy
Follies and following
Flowing in the wrong direction
Flowing just to flow
Nothing else to know
Flowing in every direction
Finding meaning, following dreams
Flipping through pages
Flowing through stages
Filling up the cup of another
Flowing out onto the floor
Flocking with the flow of others
Forming a great ocean
Full of flow, flowing, floating
Adrift in the sea
Searching for meaning
Flowing with feeling
Flowing without ever knowing
Flowing just to flow