THE SAD TRUTH ABOUT SORROW (for Joni)

That winsome melancholy

Always became you,

Or you became it

Three shades of blue

‘Don’t interrupt the sorrow’

You once admonished

But when joy peaked through clouds

You were astonished.

Why must we major

In such minor keys,

As if it were the blues

That liberates and frees?

However genuine sadness

It isn’t the last word,

Life is not all suffering,

Nor is it all absurd.

No pit is so deep,

That love’s not deeper still

Emptiness fills no cavities

Pain never will.

Melancholy makes you heavy

It tends to weigh you down,

It has specific gravity

But is it so profound?

Or is it feeling’s counterpart

To the human fall,

‘Omnia anima triste’,

Happens to us all.

In the end a choice is made,

By each and every life,

To savor life’s inherent scent

Or focus on the strife.

The sorrow is interrupted

By resurrection fact

And God imparts to human hearts

The impact of that act.

God's yes to life

Is louder than death's knell

He's enacted triumph

Tracing tragedy's limits well.

Nov. 12, 2007