Heartbreak

I wrote this poem a year ago and just rediscovered it. It feels right to share it now.

How are you handling the heartbreak, the angst which settles like mist on our rocky shores?

Does it permeate your being, becoming part of who you are?

Do you struggle, or are you letting it be background noise—like the sounds of traffic or the ringing in your ears?

I think of those who came before me, ancestors with joys and sorrows of their own, challenges so different from mine.

I think of those who will come after me, wonder what they will make of these broken pieces —collective catastrophes and shards of their own personal lives.

I wish for them to rise from the ashes, bringing beauty in ways that I cannot now imagine.

I wish for beauty for you and me, right now.

Oh, look!

—the breeze still blows.

Listen!

—the birds still sing.

Perhaps it is the breath and the song of the ancestors, telling of impermanence.

One day, those songs and breezes will be ours to share.

Until then, we move to the beat

Make the beat our own

Cry

and hurt

and allow love to seep out of these broken hearts.