Forgiveness - discussion

[busker]

Forgiveness


I forgive myself
For the failures of yesterday
I will not live in the past
Nor let it burden me with guilt
I will learn from my mistakes
But they will not define me

I forgive others
For the wrongs of days gone by
I will live in the moment
Yet embrace the journey taken
I will draw upon wisdom gained
From my trials, and my blessings

I choose to forgive
For He has forgiven me
I choose to love
For He has loved me
I will walk in the light
For He has shown me the way

Original at: https://www.pigpenpoetry.com/thread-2542...#pid269922

I've been struggling the last few days or so about whether or not to post this. But I'm going to give into this inner pull that I feel, and hope that the moderators find this acceptable.

Last week, my older brother died. He had had many struggles over many years and had burned many bridges multiple times. I am purposely choosing to be vague, and I hope you guys understand.

This "Forgiveness" poem poured out of me almost 7 years ago under circumstances unrelated to him. Yet, here it is ... available to me when I need it again. I have shared it with others as they walk through their own need to heal, and they seem to have found it comforting.

Poetry is powerful, despite the fact that it has lost much of its popularity. One of the reasons that it has lost its appeal to the masses seems to be that most people are just so impatient. They are unwilling to ponder on things. Unwilling to be quiet. Unwilling to close their eyes ... to just listen and think.

This poem is pretty straightforward. Purposefully so. As I grow as a poet, my hope is that my poetry will be accessible, yet deep. I hope to paint pictures ... to express deep emotions ... to deal with the complexities and meaning of life with rhythm and brevity. Blessings

When Keats wrote 'When I have fears that I may cease to be' in January 1818, he was two years away from contracting tuberculosis and three years away from dying in Rome. He was nursing his ill brother, who died in December of that year, yet it is not as though he knew of his own impending demise. 

But read in hindsight, the poem presages Keats's death and feels like a premonition of his own thoughts before the blow fell. And it speaks personally to us at various times.

Great poetry has that universal appeal - it makes sense through space and time. As does great religious literature. Whatever your persuasion, it is difficult to read Philippians and not be moved by the conviction of 4:13. 

So, thanks for sharing. Read in the light of your newly disclosed information, the poem has a special glow to it.

[Mark A Becker]

hmm...
"As I grow as a poet, my hope is that my poetry will be accessible, yet deep."

If my poems aren't accessible then what's the point? Poems should not need explanantion, yet they do need to leave a reader free to interpret. The 'deep' part is where one can get into deep trouble. Poems can certainly be complex, but if they become obscure, then everybody loses.

Having lost both parents, my sister, and two brothers, I have found each death to be profoundly difficult to write about. I give myself enough time to grieve before I even attempt such a poem. If nothing comes, so be it. Something inevitably does surface, and I'm usually surprised at the direction those poems take.

Some of my stuff takes years to mull over- others 'appear' nearly fully formed- most are somewhere in the middle. None are intentionally deep.

[Bunx]

sometimes forgives in hidden in a poem
for a broken child to read
and love the poet
who taught them
without
......... tone