My Grief

My Grief

...suppressed will suffocate me.

Why is it so difficult
for a man to name
what he is feeling?

He must learn
everything is not anger,
frustration, rage,
or jealousy.

Right now
I'm feeling sad,
grieving really.
But it took me awhile
to figure this out.

Others,
nameless people in photos,
men and women sharing
their own stories of grief,
helped me to feel my own.

So now I weep
way down in the deep
for the way things are,
for the inexplicable losses
I can't possibly define,
and for my own complicity,
albeit somewhat innocent,
in my own grief.

Most of all
I grieve my impotence
to do anything about my grief,
except to grieve.

Just as there's no way
for me to exit this life,
except through the body
in which I came into it,
there's nothing beyond my grief
unless I go through it.

---

Grief can be the garden of compassion.
If you keep your heart open through everything,
your pain can become your greatest ally
in your life's search for love and wisdom.
~ Rumi