Your heart brims with joy
for that which you had
wished, planned, hoped
has all come true for you
so elated are you that all
whom you touch cannot
resist your inner radiance
your good fortune, your
inexplicable divine luck.

Yet there is another heart
saddened with the sudden
loss of a dearly beloved an
unexpected tragedy leaving
a tangled net of difficulties
which due to the absence of
the one now no longer present
will permanently change and
alter the survivor's way of life.

Truly tragic is the embittered
heart, the heart oft hurt, the
heart that suffered lost loves
the heart of disappointments
the heart of broken vows, of
smashed commitments whose
once promising start in life is
now but a bitter shadow that
mock once brighter memories.

Of all adversity and affliction
is the heart that has through
the vagaries of life experienced
all of the above stages, has more
than any other suffered the greatest
degree of emotional torture, has
been subjected to an unrelenting
continuous battering, so that it has
in self defense completely shut down.

Most, who live a normal life span
will experience a part or all of the
above aspects of their heart in some
 form or another in varying degrees
for it is a part of life as we know it
virtually unavoidable, its certainty
regretfully assured, yet one can be
prepared to overcome, to shield, to
steel oneself with a deeply dedicated
conviction in the power of true love.

Herbert Holzbauer
© June 2004

Midi: "Never My Love"
(niteowl.org)

Photo: "Heart-Moon"
Photo by: Jim Leftwich
(bitwaste.com)