The Garden of Eden by Thomas Cole (1828)

Sometimes I wish I could go back
To the times before Pandora opened her box
Or before I tasted the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil
To the points where I knew nothing and trusted everything
Before trust had been betrayed and my heart shattered
My mind filled with knowledge that only led to more questions
And every new perspective added another layer of complexity to the world
To the fields of innocence where love flowed easily
Yet, there is no path to the childish idealism
nor a way to erase the scars on my heart and soul
Perhaps the land of naiveté was only an illusive memory
Some utopia of the memory that never really existed at all
Or an innocence that was never mine to possess
When faith was simple and didn’t involve seeing the brokenness
But no amount of knocking at the gates of the land of naiveté
No bleeding knuckles or cries begging for admission allow admittance
As I dwell east of Eden with all its questions

Neil White, 2013

This poem was inspired by a line from Field of Innocence by Evanescence