Post by Eolith on Oct 9, 2005 9:41:27 GMT -5
This really touched me. It was written by two close friends, one of them was feeling depressed and wrote this poem. The other, in an attempt to comfort her friend, wrote a beautiful response.
The Poem:
If only there were no pain
No suffering, no loss
No need to sit in a corner and cry
If only life were all beauty
Beauty, though, is pain itself
For beauty makes the pain of love
Love is so much like a rose
It looks so beautiful from afar
Though only a blur in the distance
It almost calls you
screams your name
Beckons for you to find it
Closer now, you see the rose
So intricate and beautiful
Petals curling perfectly
Nearly glowing red
Such wonder must stand out
in a world so bland as this
You reach out and touch it
It's so soft and silky
Bringing your face closer
you are overwhelmed
Nothing could be better
Everything is right
Blinded by perfection
Dumbed by loveliness
You need no senses anymore
this alone was enough
You exhale slowly, but then you find
you want it all again
Reaching out to take it away
Your hand touches the stem
you feel a prick of pain
but it isn't enough to deter you
you close your grip and pull it away
though it's almost too much pain to bear
Almost letting go
you find a trickle of blood
running down your hand
But still it's not enough
you want that smell forever
you want that beauty forever
You find a vase to put your rose in
Fill it with clean water
Set it in a sunny room
It will live forever
Something so perfect
could never die
Days pass, a week
you begin to not notice
its perfection and wonder
It's not really that special
once you have seen it so many times
So the water becomes tinted brown
A month has passed
You enter the room
it struck you that you should
clean the water
but too late
blackened petals lie around the vase
Sighing, then crying
you look to the rose
lacking in everything it had before
the scent is gone
the water nigh empty
and only a thorned stem remains
You throw it aside
It means nothing now
your hand bleeds again
but you don't shed a tear
The scars will heal
Eventually
The longing fades
Life returns again
And so does routine
Until one day, you see
A rose just as lovely
Sitting in someone else's window
It's almost like having the cuts reopen
having lemons squeezed above
Once you were so lucky
But in your ignorance
You let your luck go to waste
Never to return
If only they knew
Tat would be the only perfect rose
Ten they would not leave it alone in their window
They would not forget
If only it could be yours
You would know what to do
But life continues
No other perfect rose will come your way
Or maybe it will
Yet still, the pain will always be there
From what you did wrong
And will never be forgiven
If only love were not so bittersweet
Or so tempting, like a perfect rose
But nothing can be done
You can still get joy out of life
And keep one eye open for something more
And learn to live with pain.
The Response:
We all have bouquets of roses in our life that we must never forget. Granted, none of those flowers are quite as pristine as the single rose that all of us will find someday, but they are there nontheless. Some of them might be a bit ruffled, or closed in youth, or loosing their petals in age. But no matter how long you let their water run low, they will never die. You know why?
It's because they know that if they fade away, you will have no brightness in your life. They know that you will loose something so much more important than the red of petals. For this they hold on to their life, to preserve you yours. They have faith that in the end, after the most perfect rose has passed away, you will remember them. They will comfort you in any way they can, and together they will give you the same beauty, scent, and silken feel of that single rose.
The Poem:
If only there were no pain
No suffering, no loss
No need to sit in a corner and cry
If only life were all beauty
Beauty, though, is pain itself
For beauty makes the pain of love
Love is so much like a rose
It looks so beautiful from afar
Though only a blur in the distance
It almost calls you
screams your name
Beckons for you to find it
Closer now, you see the rose
So intricate and beautiful
Petals curling perfectly
Nearly glowing red
Such wonder must stand out
in a world so bland as this
You reach out and touch it
It's so soft and silky
Bringing your face closer
you are overwhelmed
Nothing could be better
Everything is right
Blinded by perfection
Dumbed by loveliness
You need no senses anymore
this alone was enough
You exhale slowly, but then you find
you want it all again
Reaching out to take it away
Your hand touches the stem
you feel a prick of pain
but it isn't enough to deter you
you close your grip and pull it away
though it's almost too much pain to bear
Almost letting go
you find a trickle of blood
running down your hand
But still it's not enough
you want that smell forever
you want that beauty forever
You find a vase to put your rose in
Fill it with clean water
Set it in a sunny room
It will live forever
Something so perfect
could never die
Days pass, a week
you begin to not notice
its perfection and wonder
It's not really that special
once you have seen it so many times
So the water becomes tinted brown
A month has passed
You enter the room
it struck you that you should
clean the water
but too late
blackened petals lie around the vase
Sighing, then crying
you look to the rose
lacking in everything it had before
the scent is gone
the water nigh empty
and only a thorned stem remains
You throw it aside
It means nothing now
your hand bleeds again
but you don't shed a tear
The scars will heal
Eventually
The longing fades
Life returns again
And so does routine
Until one day, you see
A rose just as lovely
Sitting in someone else's window
It's almost like having the cuts reopen
having lemons squeezed above
Once you were so lucky
But in your ignorance
You let your luck go to waste
Never to return
If only they knew
Tat would be the only perfect rose
Ten they would not leave it alone in their window
They would not forget
If only it could be yours
You would know what to do
But life continues
No other perfect rose will come your way
Or maybe it will
Yet still, the pain will always be there
From what you did wrong
And will never be forgiven
If only love were not so bittersweet
Or so tempting, like a perfect rose
But nothing can be done
You can still get joy out of life
And keep one eye open for something more
And learn to live with pain.
The Response:
We all have bouquets of roses in our life that we must never forget. Granted, none of those flowers are quite as pristine as the single rose that all of us will find someday, but they are there nontheless. Some of them might be a bit ruffled, or closed in youth, or loosing their petals in age. But no matter how long you let their water run low, they will never die. You know why?
It's because they know that if they fade away, you will have no brightness in your life. They know that you will loose something so much more important than the red of petals. For this they hold on to their life, to preserve you yours. They have faith that in the end, after the most perfect rose has passed away, you will remember them. They will comfort you in any way they can, and together they will give you the same beauty, scent, and silken feel of that single rose.