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I TOOK THIS PAIN FOR YOUR HAPPINESS
I TOOK THIS PAIN FOR YOUR HAPPINESS
(For Lynn Taylor, Como, N.C.
If you could count your valid coins of happiness, how would it
Measure against the specious fruit of unpleasure? Wouldn’t it
Amount to a pleasure alternating by pain in endless succession?
And if it were all pleasure, how would you cognize it or relate to
It in any way if there were not for pain? Seemingly, it takes these
Prolonged convalescences to come to the appreciation of beauty.
And, of all the kingdoms of serenity, and my destiny of which I
Have strove for this beauty, I exchange those tokens of pain and
Suffering for those coins of happiness. Can we balance this ledger?
For a brief moments sketch, a contrasting ground so assiduously
Prepared for happiness suddenly turns into loss. Can there ever
Be a full banquet of pleasure without a meal full of obstacles?
I loved you with all of my heart and soul and had to give you up
Knowing that I could not prepare a banquet for you such as you
Deserved. Will you ever forgive me without knowing why?
A man’s love for his beloved is from the sky to the earth and would
Like to give her the sun, moon and stars. If I could not bring heaven
Down to you forgive me. A woman love from the earth to the sky.
From the earth to the sky, you saw me as the knight in the night that
Would bring this to you. But, alas, my slower destiny plods behind
Yours and though you see me in those stars, I am not there. Forgive me.
If love could be measured as a sacrifice, then I have sacrificed everything
For you by letting you go, knowing that I could not give you those stars
And that someone else would have to do this. I took this pain for your happiness.
