28. Sorrow [100 poems challenge]

28.          Sorrow

All-consuming anguish,
The aching emptiness of loss;
Inconsolable grief,
And world-ending darkness
That must surely last forever.

At the edge of the abyss
Where nothing can be right again
And wounds will never heal
A mother’s gentle hug
Gives a glimmering of hope.

28 May 2013

Comments: I couldn’t get into this one at all, as you can see by the fact that it was written only the day before it was needed for publication. In desperation I started to resort to the brevity of another haiku but this seemed a cop out … and it wasn’t working anyway. In the end I went with an idea that had been lingering for a few days, uncompellingly and without getting any impetus of its own and actually going somewhere. As it happens, having tried to make it do something, I don’t think the end result is too bad—perhaps a little overearnest and overwrought—but I wanted to capture intense lamentation.

In trying to find an angle for sorrow I got to thinking about how emotionally devastating some of the simple losses of childhood can be: the balloon that flies away, the toy that is broken, the goldfish that dies. For us as adults these are nothing, but I have seen the lost confusion and anguish that a child experiences, and it overwhelms them in a way that tears my own soul to watch. For us as adults these are nothing, but they are shadows of griefs to come in our own lives: the departure of a loved one, our catastrophic mistakes, our heartache at changes in relationships and circumstance. We too experience lost confusion and an anguish that overwhelms us and tears our own souls seemingly beyond repair. Yet I do believe there is hope, and I have faith that things can be made right.

Themes to come: 29. Happiness; 30. Under the Rain; 31. Flowers; 32. Night; 33. Expectation

Explanation about the 100 poems challenge here.