Confronting Anger

Confronting Anger

...by listening to it.

Like water,
does anger find its level?
Or does it surge,
becoming a tsunami
as it destroys everything
in its path?

It surely all depends
as anger will seek an outlet
in people and places vulnerable
to anger's toxic contamination.

Suppressing anger intensifies
both its power and volatility.
Even a justifiable anger
will soon turn on its creator,
wreaking untold horrors and havoc
on ever-growing numbers.

Anger can only be contained
by those truly willing to listen
and then do something about
its more reasonable demands.

---

Anybody can become angry -
that is easy,
but to be angry with the right person
and to the right degree
and at the right time
and for the right purpose,
and in the right way -
that is not within everybody's power
and is not easy.
~ Aristotle

Bitterness is like cancer.
It eats upon the host.
But anger is like fire.
It burns it all clean.
~ Maya Angelou