Forevern

Forevern is a poetry cycle by Parsa Jeihoun that functions as a unified narrative rather than a conventional collection of standalone poems. Written over several years, the work presents an evolving symbolic realm, also called “Forevern”, which operates simultaneously as a mythic landscape, an emotional state, and a conceptual space shaped by love, distance, loss, and renewal. The collection follows a discernible narrative progression. It begins in uncertainty and disorientation, marked by recurring imagery of fog, obscured vision, and unstable ground, suggesting an initial existential limbo. As the sequence develops, the poems move toward encounter and intimacy, where love emerges as a formative force, often articulated through natural symbolism such as mountains, water, light, and rootedness. These images establish Forevern as a place of belonging and shared endurance rather than idealized romance. A central characteristic of Forevern is its internal symbolic system. Recurring motifs, including trees (particularly the spruce), fire, illness, distance, seasons, and transformation, form a coherent mythology that evolves alongside the emotional narrative. The spruce tree, in particular, functions as a recurring symbolic figure, representing constancy, guardianship, and moral orientation within the imagined realm. Rather than serving as fixed metaphors, these symbols shift in meaning as the relationship portrayed in the poems undergoes strain and change. Later sections of the cycle introduce rupture and crisis. Poems depicting guilt, emotional withdrawal, illness, and separation portray Forevern as a threatened or fractured space, at times resembling exile or purgatory. In these moments, the work interrogates love as a process that requires responsibility, self-examination, and transformation rather than passive idealization. The recurring imagery of fire and rebirth culminates in poems that frame continuity not as preservation, but as renewal through change. Taken as a whole, Forevern can be read as a contemporary example of poetic mythopoeia. Blending autobiographical elements with symbolic world-building, the work constructs a sustained inner mythology through which themes of intimacy, identity, and endurance are explored. It represents Jeihoun’s primary literary project and a defining articulation of his poetic voice.

• Title: Forevern
• Author: Parsa Jeihoun
• Publication year: 2025
• Language: English
• Genre: Poetry/ Mythopoetic narrative
• ISBN: 978-622-1416-14-1
• Publisher: Jadooye Ghalam Publishing House

Plot

Introduction: The Foggy Search

The poetic cycle opens in a state of existential disorientation. The speaker traverses a "Foggy Land," a symbolic landscape of obscured vision and unstable footing, establishing a pre-relational condition of isolation and unbelonging. This introductory movement posits Forevern as a conceptual objective, a mythic realm representing connection and clarity that remains initially elusive and undefined.

Rising Action: The Encounter and the Birth of a World

The narrative progression initiates with a foundational interpersonal encounter. The beloved is systematically symbolized as a Spruce tree, an evergreen archetype of constancy and sanctuary. Through poems such as A New Beginning and The City of Rain, this relationship is depicted as generative, constructing the shared symbolic realm of Forevern. This world-building utilizes natural imagery, mountains, rivers, light, to formalize Forevern as a constructed mythology of intimacy, with the Spruce functioning as its central pillar and guardian.

Rising Action: Crisis and The Fracturing of Paradise

The sequence introduces narrative conflict through themes of rupture and decline. Poems including Blight, Space, and The Tempest depict emotional withdrawal, illness, and guilt, destabilizing the Forevern construct. The speaker’s introspection reveals anxieties of imperfection and failed expectation. This phase transmutes Forevern from an idealized paradise into a purgatorial space, a site of exile, trial, and psychological combustion where the dynamics of love are interrogated as a demanding, ethical labor rather than a passive state.

Climax: The Trial by Fire and The Leap of Faith

The crisis attains its zenith in a staged trial. Works such as The Day of the Trial and Through Fire, To Forevern present a literal and ritualistic journey toward reconciliation, involving confrontations with perceived external curses and internal failings. The climactic pivot occurs in The Leap of Faith, wherein the speaker, presented with a detached, peaceful isolation, actively rejects it in favor of a deliberate fall back into the painful, transformative process, placing ultimate trust in the Spruce’s redemptive capability. This constitutes the narrative’s decisive ethical and emotional commitment.

Falling Action: Reconstruction and Rooted Renewal

Post-climax, the cycle shifts to a phase of systematic reconstruction. The speaker assumes the role of a Soldier engaged in internal warfare, deconstructing psychological frameworks (Layers upon Layers) to forge a renewed self. The relationship is re-established on conscious, resilient foundations, emphasized in poems like Rootbound and Where our Roots Entwined. Forevern is redefined not as a lost ideal but as a dynamic state earned through continuous effort, vulnerability (Between the Words), and perseverance amid hardship (A Flower in a Snowy Winter).

Resolution: Forevern as an Eternal, Evolving Reality

The resolution transcends conventional narrative closure. The speaker arrives at a metaphysical understanding: Forevern exists beyond the heaven/hell binary, constituting a perpetual cycle of creation, destruction, and rebirth (Phoenix Beneath the Hearth). Final poems (Ten Million Mount Everests, Now’s the Time) employ statistical and botanical metaphor to affirm the relationship’s anomalous permanence. The speaker, now figured as a Pothos vine, symbolically prepares for eternal symbiosis with the Spruce. The work concludes by affirming Forevern as a continuous state of becoming, an enduring mythic process rather than a fixed destination.

Setting

The setting of Parsa Jeihoun's Forevern is a complex duality, existing simultaneously within tangible, real-world locations and a vast, evolving symbolic landscape. The atmosphere, palette, and physicality of these spaces are meticulously crafted to reflect the emotional and thematic core of the work.

I. Real-World & Urban Settings

The narrative is periodically anchored in specific, identifiable Iranian cities, providing a foundation of realism. Tehran is the primary urban setting, depicted through its cafés, Milad Tower, Lavizan woods, and bustling streets (The Way to the City of Rain, Surprise). The atmosphere here is one of modern intimacy, where personal moments unfold against an urban backdrop. Mashhad appears as a destination of journey and reunion (Meeting Her Again), its significance tied to the emotional pilgrimage of the speaker. Transitory spaces, buses, trains, cars, form a crucial subset of this real-world setting. They are zones of movement, anticipation, and separation, characterized by the sensory experience of travel: the rhythm of wheels, the enclosed space, and the passing landscape viewed from windows (Last Day, The Day of the Trial).

II. Symbolic Natural Landscapes

Beyond the urban, the work employs recurring natural environments charged with symbolic meaning. The dominant atmosphere shifts according to the emotional narrative.

• The Foggy Land: Introduced early, this is a landscape of obscurity and disorientation. The palette is drained and monochromatic: "pale white," "milky way, the mist." The atmosphere is cold, damp, and confusing, with "dews that bite" and "sticky ground." It represents a state of existential and emotional lostness, where vision and direction are impossible.
• The Mountainous Journey: This setting is defined by struggle, effort, and ultimate transcendence. Imagery includes steep paths, rivers (both guiding and pulling), falling stones, and the guiding sun. The atmosphere progresses from challenging exertion to the bright, clear, and victorious air of the peak near sunset (A New Beginning). It symbolizes the arduous path to connection and shared achievement.
• The Arboreal Sanctuary: The most persistent natural setting is the domain of the Spruce tree. This space is consistently portrayed as a place of safety, warmth, and rootedness. The atmosphere is serene, "still and silent," characterized by dappled light, soft winds, and the protective embrace of evergreen branches (Who is my lover, Rootbound). It is a personalized, sacred natural space.
• The Tempestuous Sea/Winter: During phases of crisis, the setting transforms into one of turmoil and cold. The atmosphere becomes dark, violent, and threatening: turbulent waves, cold ocean spray, and howling storms (The Tempest). This shifts into the brittle, desolate cold of winter—"frost arrives to paint despair," with faded light, fallen leaves, and hollow silence (Awaiting Cold). These settings externalize emotional desolation and fear.

III. The Mythic Realm: Forevern

"Forevern" itself is the ultimate mythological setting, an internal realm that is both aspirational and, at times, perceptually real to the speaker.

• Atmosphere and Light: Forevern's defining characteristic is its luminosity. It is repeatedly described as a realm where "dreams come true," filled with "light of day" (The Way to Forevern). It is a "glowing point" that expands into a "big circle" in darkness (Glimpse of light). Its atmosphere is one of peace, harmony, and "blissful" sanctuary (Reunion). However, this light can be threatened by inner shadows, dimmed by doubt, or perceived as a distant "glimmer on the horizon" (The Leap of Faith).
• Mythical Geography: Forevern is described as a "magical realm" and a "kingdom." It contains "fields where gold winds play" (Spruce & Stone) and "glades" (The Angel). Its topography is abstract, often felt rather than mapped, serving as an emotional and spiritual destination. Crucially, it is juxtaposed with other mythic spaces: it is contrasted with a cold, silent peace "above the clouds" and "past the patience of mountains" (The Leap of Faith), and is explicitly distinguished from the punitive, waiting state of Purgatorio.

Synthesis of Setting

The setting operates on a continuum from the photorealistic (the streets of Tehran) to the purely allegorical (the Foggy Land). "Forevern" exists at the mythic end of this spectrum, a constructed, subjective realm built from the raw materials of real-world experience (the Spruce in a park, a city rain) and elevated into a personal cosmology. The atmospheric progression from fog to storm to serene arboreal light and, finally, to the sustained, hard-won glow of Forevern, charts the protagonist's internal journey through a meticulously rendered symbolic geography.

Characters

Characterization Framework

This analysis employs the critical terms static/dynamic and flat/round to examine the primary agents within the poetic sequence. A static character remains largely unchanged in perspective or essential nature from beginning to end, while a dynamic character undergoes significant internal transformation. A flat character embodies a single idea or quality with minimal internal complexity, whereas a round character exhibits the depth, contradiction, and development of a complex personality.

Primary Character Analysis

1. The Speaker (Narrator)

• Classification: Dynamic and Round.
• Analysis: The Speaker is the sole, consistent consciousness through which the entire work is focalized. This character undergoes profound psychological, emotional, and philosophical evolution, constituting the core dynamic arc of the sequence.
  • Initial State: Introduced in a state of existential anonymity and disorientation ("The Foggy Land"). The Speaker is passive, lost, and defined by absence—of direction, connection, and a defined self.
  • Catalyst and Development: The encounter with the Beloved (the Spruce) initiates a transformation from passivity to active world-building. The Speaker becomes a myth-maker, constructing the realm of Forevern through love. However, this early phase is marked by a degree of idealization and dependency, viewing Forevern as a passive paradise (The Way to Forevern, Waking up next to you).
  • Crisis and Interiority: The Speaker's roundness is fully revealed in poems of crisis (Blight, Space, The Tempest, Guilt). Here, the character is subjected to intense introspection, revealing a complex interior landscape of fear, insecurity, self-sabotage, and profound guilt. This phase dismantles the initial, simpler romantic identity, exposing vulnerability and fault.
  • Transformation and Synthesis: The climax and falling action demonstrate dynamic growth. The Speaker actively engages in a "war of inner change" (Soldier), dismantles psychological constructs (Layers upon Layers), and exercises conscious choice (The Leap of Faith). The character evolves from a seeker of an external sanctuary to an active participant in building a resilient, conscious love. The final poems (Now’s the Time) present a Speaker who has integrated vulnerability, responsibility, and hope, ready for a mature, eternal covenant. This journey from lost wanderer to committed, self-aware creator marks one of the most definitive dynamic arcs in contemporary poetic sequences.

2. The Beloved (Symbolized as the Spruce)

• Classification: Static and Round.
• Analysis: The Beloved is primarily presented not through independent action or internal monologue, but through the Speaker's perception and a consistent, potent symbolic system: the Spruce tree. In terms of overt change, the character is static; her symbolic attributes, constancy, serenity, guardianship, evergreen resilience—are unwavering from first attribution (Who is my lover) to the final vow (Now’s the Time).
  • Roundness through Symbolic Multivalence: Despite this static symbolic core, the Beloved achieves roundness through the immense depth and varied functions of the Spruce symbol. She is simultaneously:
    1. A Lover: Source of intimacy, warmth, and peace (Waking up next to you).
    2. A Sanctuary & Guide: A physical and spiritual haven (The Way to Forevern), and a guiding "angel" or compass (The Angel, Spruce & Stone).
    3. A Mirror & Catalyst: Her perceived perfection or steadfastness often reflects the Speaker's own insecurities (Sometimes I Think) and becomes the catalyst for his guilt and subsequent growth (Guilt).
    4. A Mythic Anchor: The immutable center of the Forevern mythology, representing the eternal promise that endures despite the Speaker's fluctuations.
  • Contribution: The Beloved's static, rounded nature is thematically essential. She functions as the fixed pole in the Speaker's dynamic universe. Her consistency provides the stable ground against which his transformation is measured and made possible. She is less a conventionally developing character and more an archetypal force, the embodiment of the love, belonging, and timelessness that the Speaker seeks, internalizes, struggles against, and ultimately chooses.

3. The Spruce (As Autonomous Symbol)

• Classification: Static and Round (as a symbolic entity).
• Analysis: Transcending its role as a metaphor for the Beloved, the Spruce occasionally operates as an independent archetypal character within the mythic landscape of Forevern. It speaks (Glistening Burst, Phoenix Beneath the Hearth), acts (The Leap of Faith), and offers wisdom.
  • Function: This personification elevates the Spruce from an attribute of the Beloved to a mythic personage in its own right, a guardian spirit of Forevern. It represents the inherent, intelligent life-force of the love-world itself, independent of the human lovers' temporary failures. Its dialogues with the Speaker externalize his internal struggles and reaffirm the realm's enduring laws (e.g., light persists beyond storms, destruction contains renewal).

Supporting Analysis and Validity

This classification is validated by the text's structure and priorities. The work is a lyric sequence, not a novel; its primary focus is the exhaustive exploration of a single consciousness (the Speaker). The Beloved's roundness is necessarily reflective and symbolic, constructed through the Speaker's adoration, anxiety, and perception. Her static quality is not a flaw but a deliberate poetic choice, establishing her as the eternal "evergreen" in contrast to his seasonal changes. The dynamic transformation of the Speaker is the engine of the narrative progression, moving from fog, to paradise, to purgatory, and finally to a earned, conscious eternity. Therefore, the characters are expertly crafted to serve the work's central mythopoeic project: to chart the tumultuous journey of the self toward a love that demands and facilitates profound personal metamorphosis.

Symbols

Forevern, the poetic work by Parsa Jeihoun, is a richly layered text that employs a consistent system of symbols to explore themes of love, spiritual journey, inner transformation, and the pursuit of an idealized, eternal state of being. The work is not merely a collection of love poems but a cohesive mythological narrative in which personal emotion is universalized through natural and metaphysical imagery.

Forevern (The Central Allegory)

Forevern is the titular and central symbol of the collection. It represents not merely a destination but a state of being, a realm of perfect love, peace, and spiritual unity. It is depicted as both a tangible "magical realm" and an internal condition that must be continually earned and reclaimed. Its nature is dual: it is a sanctuary born from love (often associated with the Spruce) and a trial that involves suffering, loss, and purification. The path to Forevern is neither linear nor guaranteed; it winds through "heavens and hells," requiring the traveler to be "broken and restored." This symbol frames the entire collection as a spiritual odyssey where love is the ultimate, yet perpetually tested, truth. Forevern thus functions as a personal mythology, blending romantic love with concepts of destiny, eternity, and soul-making.

The Spruce

The spruce tree is the collection's most potent and multifaceted symbol. It primarily represents the beloved, but transcends that role to become a goddess figure, a guide, and a manifestation of Forevern itself. Characteristics of the spruce, its evergreen nature, towering height, deep roots, and protective branches, symbolize the beloved's enduring strength, wisdom, and life-giving presence. In poems like "Who is my lover" and "The Angel," the spruce is explicitly identified as the lover and a celestial guardian. It provides shelter ("Rooting down with the spruce"), guidance ("Each needle a compass"), and is the focal point of reunion and stability. The spruce is an archetype of the Axis Mundi, a world tree connecting heaven and earth, around which the poet's universe revolves. The relationship is reciprocal: the poet is also a "Pothos" vine twining around the spruce, suggesting interdependence and symbiotic growth.

Fog, Mist, and Obscurity

Recurring imagery of fog, mist, and darkness (as in "The Foggy Land" and "Glimpse of light") symbolizes confusion, doubt, isolation, and periods of spiritual or emotional blindness. The "foggy land" represents states of alienation where direction and meaning are lost. This obscurity stands in direct contrast to the clarity and light of Forevern. The struggle to navigate through this fog allegorizes the internal battles with uncertainty, fear, and despair that precede moments of revelation or reunion. It is the necessary negative space against which the "glimpse of light", the promise or memory of Forevern, shines more brightly.

Journey, Mountain, and Path

The physical journey, over mountains, on buses, trains, and through cities, is a clear symbol for the emotional and relational journey of the lovers. "A New Beginning" depicts climbing a mountain together, symbolizing overcoming shared hardships to achieve unity ("wearing victory's crown"). The path itself is often described as "slippery" or treacherous, indicating the difficulty of maintaining love and connection. Travel becomes a metaphor for the effort, distance (both physical and emotional), and perseverance required in love. The "city of rain" and other destinations are waystations where love is tested and celebrated, but the ultimate direction is always toward the mythic Forevern.

Weather and Seasons

Weather patterns are meticulously tied to emotional states. Rain often accompanies moments of romantic union and catharsis ("The City of Rain"). Storms and tempests ("The Tempest," "Blight") represent conflict, internal turmoil, and periods of relational crisis. Winter, cold, and falling leaves ("Awaiting Cold," "Two Months of Flame") symbolize absence, separation, loneliness, and the "death" or dormancy of love. Conversely, spring, sunlight, and blooming ("The Living Leaves," "A Flower in a Snowy Winter") symbolize hope, resilience, renewal, and the return of love. This cyclical use of seasons mirrors the non-linear, oscillating progression toward Forevern.

Light and Dark

A fundamental binary operates throughout the text. Light (sun, stars, flashes, glowing circles) symbolizes Forevern, love, truth, guidance, and hope. Dark (night, abyss, pitch black) symbolizes its absence: despair, loss, and spiritual blindness. The poem "Glimpse of light" is a direct allegory for the transformative moment when the idea of Forevern pierces through depression ("Dark matter felt like a heavy sack"). The "Flashlight" represents a flickering, often unreliable hope that nonetheless propels the speaker forward. The struggle is often framed as a battle to reach, maintain, or believe in the light despite overwhelming darkness.

Body as Landscape; Aliment as Discord

The lovers' physical bodies are often described in elemental or geographical terms (veins as rivers, ribs as landscapes in "Pitco!"), suggesting their unity with and reflection of the natural world. Conversely, physical ailments are powerful allegories for emotional and relational strife. In "Blight," a "sickness" with "fevered brow" and "painful bone break" directly represents a rift in the relationship. This symbolism elevates emotional pain to a tangible, almost physiological crisis, emphasizing how deeply the union is felt on a bodily level. Healing from this "affliction" is tied to time and the natural, gradual restoration of harmony.

Metamorphosis and Hybrid Creatures

The theme of transformation is central. The "caterpillar" becoming a butterfly in "Metamorphosis" is an allegory for personal growth required by love. The poet must "alter itself, to make changes" to reach Forevern. This symbolizes the painful but necessary process of shedding old selves, habits, and fears. Mythical creatures like the phoenix ("Phoenix Beneath the Hearth") symbolize rebirth from the ashes of past suffering. The poet as a "Soldier in the war of inner change" further develops this allegory of the self as a battlefield where a better self must be forged through disciplined internal conflict.

Walls, Stones, and Fortresses

Man-made structures often represent obstacles, both external and internal. Walls can be barriers to love ("Pathos" shows a flower growing near a wall, embracing it, suggesting love persists alongside obstacles). More significantly, in "Layers upon Layers," the mind builds a "fortress of fears" with bricks of doubt and mortar of despair. This is an allegory for self-imposed psychological barriers that separate the individual from truth, love, and Forevern. Dismantling this fortress becomes an act of psychological and spiritual labor necessary to enter the "haven of grace."

Religious and Mythical Imagery

The text consistently employs religious lexicon to sacralize the love story. Forevern is a "holy ground," a "sacred space," with its own "church" and "priest." The beloved is an "angel." References to "Purgatorio," "St. Peter," "the Thirteenth Imam," and ritualistic prayers frame the lovers' trials as spiritual ordeals. This elevates their relationship from the personal to the cosmic, suggesting it is overseen by, or analogous to, divine forces. The "curse" to be broken and the "trial" to be endured are mythic in scale, positioning the poet as a hero on a quest sanctioned by a higher order.

The Flower

The flower is a versatile symbol. It often represents the beloved's beauty and delicacy ("My beloved, my sweet delight"). In "Expectations," it symbolizes the beloved (or perhaps the poet) under the pressure of external demands to remain perfect and fair. Most powerfully, in "A Flower in a Snowy Winter" and "Pathos," the flower becomes an allegory for resilient love itself, blooming against all odds, defiant in the face of harsh conditions (separation, doubt), sustained solely by the warmth of the other's care. It embodies the miraculous persistence of love in adverse environments.

In conclusion, Forevern constructs a dense symbolic universe where every natural element, weather pattern, bodily sensation, and journey maps directly onto an internal, emotional, and spiritual landscape. The allegory of Forevern is the totalizing myth that contains all others, a personal gospel of love where the Spruce is the divine incarnation, the path is one of sacrifice and purification, and the promised land is a state of union that must be eternally defended and rediscovered. The work is a modern Divine Comedy of the heart, using a consistent, recycled set of symbols to chart its course through infernos of doubt, purgatories of waiting, and paradises of connection.

Philosophy

Forevern, the poetic cycle by Parsa Jeihoun, is not merely a personal love diary but a sustained philosophical project that explores profound questions of existence, identity, love, and metaphysics through the medium of lyric poetry and allegorical narrative. Its philosophical context is eclectic yet coherent, drawing from existentialism, phenomenology, Platonic idealism, and mystical traditions to construct a unique, personal metaphysics centered on the concept of love as a world-constituting and self-transforming force.

Existentialism and the Project of the Self

A dominant philosophical current in Forevern is existentialism, particularly the strand concerned with becoming, choice, and authentic existence. The poet’s journey is explicitly one of self-creation and inner change. Poems like "Soldier," "Guilt," and "Metamorphosis" frame the self not as a fixed entity but as a project, a battlefield or a chrysalis, where one must actively engage in painful self-examination, dismantle “fortresses of fear” ("Layers upon Layers"), and assume responsibility for one’s flaws. This mirrors the existentialist call for individuals to define their essence through action and to confront the anxiety of freedom. The “war of inner change” is an existential struggle for authenticity, where the poet must shed his “disguise” to become “the best version of self.” The recurring theme of being “broken and restored” ("Preface") echoes the existential notion that meaning is not found but forged, often through suffering.

Phenomenology of Love and the Lifeworld (Lebenswelt)

The work performs a deep phenomenology of love, an investigation into how love structures lived experience, perception, and time. Love in Forevern is not just an emotion but a mode of being-in-the-world. It alters the fundamental coordinates of reality: time melts ("Magnetic Hours"), gravity shifts, and mundane spaces become sacred ("The Way to Forevern"). This aligns with the phenomenological tradition of thinkers like Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who emphasized the embodied and world-shaping nature of perception. The beloved (the Spruce) is not just an object of affection but the pole around which the poet’s entire lifeworld organizes itself. Her absence causes the world to drain of meaning, becoming a “foggy land” or a “void,” while her presence fills it with light and orientation. Love is the primary lens through which the world is given and made meaningful.

Platonic Idealism and the Realm of Forms

The central allegory of Forevern itself functions as a Platonic Form, an ideal, perfect, and eternal realm of which earthly love and beauty are imperfect reflections. Forevern is described as a “magical realm,” a “sanctuary,” and the “ultimate way” where “love is woven and light of day.” It exists beyond the mutable, suffering-filled physical world, yet it is the source of all true meaning and the ultimate destination of the soul. The poet’s arduous journey toward it mirrors the Platonic soul’s ascent from the cave of illusions toward the light of Truth and the Form of the Good. The Spruce, as an “evergreen” and “angelic” figure, partakes in this ideal realm; she is the embodied connection to Forevern, a mediator of the eternal in the temporal. This framework elevates the love story from the personal to the metaphysical, positioning human love as a participatory act in a higher, divine reality.

Mystical Theology and the Via Negativa

The path to Forevern is often described in terms that resonate with mystical traditions, particularly the via purgativa, the purgative way. The journey involves trials, darkness, burning away of illusions ("Preface"), and descent into an inferno. Poems like "The Tempest," "Purgatorio," and "Process" depict states of despair, guilt, and purification that are necessary precursors to spiritual union. The intervention of the "Thirteenth Imam" in "A Curse to Break" explicitly incorporates Islamic mystical imagery, framing the lovers’ strife as a spiritual battle against external, almost demonic, forces. This mystical context posits love as a rigorous spiritual discipline that demands sacrifice, surrender, and the transcending of the ego. The final union is not merely romantic but beatific, a merging with a divine principle.

Metaphysics of Unity and Dualism

The poetry engages with a fundamental metaphysical problem: the relationship between the One and the Many, or the longing for unity in a world of separation. The poet’s existential state is one of painful dualism—between self and other, presence and absence, light and dark, earth and Forevern. The entire work is a striving to overcome this dualism. The imagery of "roots entwining," the "Pothos" vine twining around the "Spruce," and the blending into "A Vintage Wine" all symbolize a desired ontological union where two souls become one essence without losing their individual identities. This reflects influences from philosophies of unity found in Romanticism, Sufism, and even Hegelian dialectics, where synthesis emerges from the tension of opposites. The "magnetic" pull in "Magnetic Hours" illustrates this dynamic: opposites attract to create a higher, cohesive whole, drawing “everything into place.”

Absurdism and the Response to Suffering

While the overarching narrative is one of faith and ultimate unity, the poetry does not shy away from the absurd—the inexplicable, gratuitous nature of suffering and separation. Poems like "Awaiting Cold," "Two Months of Flame," and "Blight" capture the feeling of existential absurdity where pain seems meaningless and cyclical. However, the poet’s response is not that of Camus’s defiant Sisyphus embracing absurdity but rather that of a faithful believer attributing deeper, perhaps inscrutable, meaning to the trial. The absurd is transformed into a test within the mythical framework of Forevern. Thus, the work positions itself against nihilistic absurdism, instead advocating for a mythopoeic response: one creates a sustaining myth (the story of Forevern) to endure suffering and affirm meaning.

Kierkegaard’s "Leap of Faith" as Structural Principle

The poem "The Leap of Faith" is not merely titled suggestively; it enacts the central paradox of Kierkegaard’s thought. Kierkegaard posited that to move from the "ethical stage" (a life of reason, duty, and universal rules) to the "religious stage" (a life of absolute commitment to a personal, transcendent God), one must make a radical, non-rational "leap." This leap is taken in the face of the "absurd"—it defies logical calculation and empirical evidence. It is a subjective, passionate commitment that defines one’s existence.

Your poem captures this precisely:

• The Abyss of Reason: The speaker is on an "ill-omened path," where stones (foundations, certainties) are pulled upward by "whispers forged in smoke." Forevern, the objective, vanishes from the horizon. This is the Kierkegaardian moment of "despair" or "the dizziness of freedom," where rational and ethical systems fail to provide meaning or direction. The world becomes incomprehensible.
• The Withdrawal of the Universal: The peace "above the clouds" represents a temptation toward a detached, aesthetic or ethical stoicism—a kind of rational resignation. He could stay in this state of quiet despair.
• The Subjective Call: Instead, he acts on a "faint pulse," a "rhythm not of earth nor sky / But something older." This is not objective truth but subjective, inward truth—what Kierkegaard called "truth as subjectivity" or the "passionate inwardness" of faith. He hears the call of the absolute, even (or especially) when all external markers are gone.
• The Leap Itself: "I believed. / I believed. / So I took a leap of faith." The repetition underscores the passionate, willful nature of the act. He surrenders to the fall, relinquishing control ("the world forgot my name"), which is the necessary condition for being caught by grace.
• The Absurd Resolution: He is caught not by a logical safety net, but by the Spruce, the beloved who is also the transcendent "Thou." This is the Kierkegaardian resolution: the leap into the absurd results not in destruction but in a paradoxical grounding. The Spruce, as the absolute (Forevern's representative), provides the "teleological suspension of the ethical" where the individual's absolute relation to the absolute (love for the beloved/God) justifies and re-orders all else.

Integration with the Forevern Mythos

This Kierkegaardian framework is not confined to one poem; it underpins the entire collection's philosophical architecture.

• Anxiety and Despair: The recurring "fog," "tempests," and periods of "waiting" are explorations of existential anxiety (Angest)—the awareness of freedom and possibility that precedes the leap.
• The Knight of Faith vs. the Tragic Hero: The poet often vacillates between these two Kierkegaardian archetypes. In poems like "Guilt" and "Soldier," he is the tragic hero, bound by ethical reckoning with his failures. In "The Leap of Faith" and "Nothing more," he becomes the Knight of Faith, who, by virtue of the absurd, possesses his love (his absolute end) on the strength of the absurd, even in the face of the world's end.
• Love as the Absolute Relation: Kierkegaard's most mature work, Works of Love, examines love as a duty commanded by God, a way to relate absolutely to the absolute through the neighbor. In Forevern, this is personalized and eroticized. The beloved (Spruce) is the medium through which the poet relates to the absolute (Forevern). His "leap" is always toward her, and through her, to the eternal realm. This makes his romantic love a sacred, existential task, the very center of his religious commitment.