That Does Not Know Sadness

That Does Not Know Sadness

You entered form to give a holy message.
An envoy from inconceivable is each of us. 

When you have completed that courageous task
you will be able to return to a world
that does not sadness. 

But so difficult your divine errand, 
it will take a lifetime to accomplish,
love along the way. 

        Essentially, this poem is saying in this world we will know loneliness, pain, despair, misfortune, sadness, fear, etc., but in Heaven these things will disappear. Conversely, this task of ours, life, will take a lifetime to accomplish (literally be an unfinished masterpiece until our final breath), and through it we must endure these things, while taking the time to love along the way.

         In Rilke's letters to Franz Xaver Kappus contained his perspective on suffering, prompted by Kappus asking for advice on the matter: "If only we could see a little farther than our knowledge reaches and a little beyond the borders of our intuition, we might perhaps bear our sorrows more trustingly than we do our joys. For they are the moments when something new enters us, something unknown. So don't be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known, casting its shadow over all you do. You must think that something is happening within you, and remember that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness, any pain, any depression, since you don't know what work they are accomplishing within you?"

Don't Laugh At Me, Peter, Paul, & Mary

Tell Me Of Another World

Tell Me Of Another World

“Tell me of another world,” the broken heart
says, “one where love is never sad it loved,
and the word sorry never comes to mind.”

“Show me dear God, that anything I have ever
wept for will return, will reside, in my arms.”

          As this month and its theme of Love draws to a close, it would seem incomplete to not discuss when Love is not reciprocated. Or worse, when another ends the love you’ve always known. The days seem dark and gray, finding your way seems trying. It is difficult to press on, but there are mountains, and forests, and oceans beyond the place that you now call home. Love is waiting, and we must go on, but that doesn’t mean that heartache isn’t as real and universal as true love. It is.
         When I was suffering from a broken heart, I turned towards poetry. Although, I have not read any of his works, Tony Hoagland may have summed up why I read poems when I did not seem to be able to gravitate towards anything else. "So much of what I love about poetry lies in the vast possibilities of voice, the spectacular range of idiosyncratic flavors that can be embedded in a particular human voice reporting from the field. One beautiful axis of voice is the one that runs between vulnerability and detachment, between 'It hurts to be alive' and 'I can see a million miles from here.' A good poetic voice can do both at once.”
          Love involves a certain degree of vulnerability, because believe me, you can be hurt. Then again, I believe with such strong conviction that Love, in any form, will be the greatest adventure you take and grandest legacy you leave.