Let Me Be Sad

Now let me feel sad. Impulse, trained in gladness, Do not try to whisk me away from grief Like a child caught sulking in a corner Immobilized by imagined hurt.

Instead, let me grow rich with my sadness. Let it mellow and strengthen my joy, Take bold hold of my will, Give tears permission to water the parch of loss.

Let its music ripple my spine. Let me give ardent ear To what was, to what never will be. Grief, be my companion in joy.

In the numberless calls acquainting me with the Night Bring me to my senses, numberless too In abandoning numbness and the faint iridescence Of busyness, crowds, brief entertainments.

Like walking into a sea, only in depth can I float. Depth, too often feared for its power To raise me footloose and struggling Is all that can gentle me back to shore:

Safe, breathing in the cosmos of the sweet unknown Full of the Light of having been sad.