Bliss study.

It isn’t ignorance that’s bliss.
It’s innocence that is. 

Don’t let’s mistake.
Each of these can know full well
the glory best and vile worst
of all at stake.

But ignorance denies, won’t tell.
Willfully insists what’s not. Persists
in courses far off course, avoids,
ignoring every shot at flaw and crack
and telling fault it knows is true,
and lies in wait. Pretending none
of this is real, ignorance bulls through
the gate.

Innocence, though, takes it in. By naive,
nuanced swallowing, accepting truth
without a blot, and choosing not to wallow in
denial, but metabolize the good and bad,
becoming wise. Knowing fully what things are,
it simply aims to otherwise than worst. Around
and through bad knowns, it innocently steers
itself in aim and hone to home and dry. All worsts
known, all worsts gone by.

Of course, either may not know much. Sometimes
one’s lack of knowledge swells, and one is forced
to realize: one simply doesn’t know at all. We cannot tell
when these things hit, you know. It’s ignorance and innocence.

It’s where we take it from that point. There is the fork.
We either go and swallow it, and own and grow
in all that is? Our purity shall not be lost. Or we deny
and wallow in a willful ignorance, to our great cost.

Ignorance ain't bliss.

It’s innocence that is.

The difference is entirely
in how each one responds to what
is certainly bad truth.

The innocent position is: bad truth
is good to know. Because it is. 

The ignorant position is: I know I'm right
in how things are. Therefore, this proof
of how I know things aren’t
is wrong, mistaken. I can overcome it
by sheer strength of will, and 

escape harm.

Nice luck with that, hotshot. Bliss
is not the road you're on.