Good

Mourning

Hemingway once wrote:

“You have to be hurt like hell

before you can write seriously”.

I get that.

To me he meant pain

is not the enemy

and nothing is for naught.

He may have been

referring to Fitzgerald

whose mourning of his lost past

created Gatsby.

How else to elucidate

the birth of a masterpiece

into the world?

How many of us would bother

evolving

if it were not for heartache?

How better to water a wound

than with the brine of tears?

Both are preservatory.

As the Sufi Rumi

elucidated so adroitly:

the wound

is where the light

enters you,

later dissolving;

a paper note in a pool of water

when the lessons

are absorbed.

I recommend learning the

what, where, how, why, and when

of all our wounds,

so when ready

they can then

slowly disappear.

To that end

I begin each day

determined to retrieve

the lessons of yesterday

and watch as

all my joys age

into morning.