Tears of Separation

TEARS of SEPARATION

My heart aches

My back brakes

At the separation

I find myself in

 

I long with each breath

With a sorrow of great depth

To have lived at a time

When to see You, the divine

 

I read again and again

Of the life You did lead

The untold suffering

The price,

 for us to head

 

You were here before

just shy of five score

You passed through this land

unifying His band

and sewed many a seed

with Your own hand

 

tears pour down my face

etching my heart

with their trace

how can I say

that I have pain

when manifold tests

upon You did rain

even the though of

which my heart doth strain

 

the world you left

is full of trouble

many a tower

now in rubble

but the hearts of those

You did reach

are growing  in number

as others they teach

 

like a medicine you dosed

 so carefully

infusing its healing

to humanity

 

I know in time

This world I will leave

But for now, Your absence

I doth bereave

 

Towards that time

I do long

Though worthy of Your presence

I may not belong

But I have faith and

Will be strong

 

My grieving is lessened

To a part

By the presence of You

Seen in every heart

And in serving others

In such a way

I am serving You

Each and every day

-Shiidon Jamál 166BE, May 2009

So yet another poem came to me this morning.  I do not control when they come or the thoughts that awaken them.  I just start following my heart and they come.  I was reading the description of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's suffering and reflecting on what had assailed Him His whole life in God Passes By.  He was imprisoned and constantly living under the threat of death until the last years of His life.  It was in 1912 that He was able to travel to America to visit the followers of His fathers faith.  He met many dignitaries and spoke to thousands of people about the verities of the Bahá'í Faith.  It is hard to believe that the centenary of His visit will arrive.

The image above is from my "moleskin" notebook that I have been using to jot down poems wherever I find the inspiration.  The left page has the end of the previous poem and the right page has the beginning of this poem.  I start and end in one sitting.  I do not usually spend days or time writing and revising.  In fact, there are very few if any revisions when I write my poems.