Compassion Hurts

POSTED IN contemporary poetry June 26, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compassion Hurts

Connected to everything
we carry the universe
or are crushed by it.
We must be strong to love
the world. It’s hard
to sit at the table
of earth’s worst horrors
My rich imagination
is the power that shoves
me off the seat of self
and shows how blind
my eyes turned in can be.

Let me close enough to you
that your tears will appear
on my cheek, as you seek
to share experience
that I may never meet.
I must grow strong enough
to love the world as it is
and be empty enough
to stay with your pain.
Let us huddle together
to keep out the cold,
for we need eyes
that still can weep,
and smiles so big
we can’t see ourselves.

 

Gael Bage 

UK