On Being Only Human: a Poetic Metaphor

If I were a star, my passions coud burn

hotter and brighter;

If I were a cloud, I could

she more tears for the world.

If I were a lake, I could reflect

all the beauty around;

If I were a tree, I could

make shelter for all.

But I am only a human,

so all I can do

is love,

and laugh,

.....and try my best,

..........and hope it's good enough.

When I first wrote this poem, back in January of 1996, I was in the throes of a divorce, and this was a poem of both despair and hope. A good many of my poems from that era were of a theraputic sort of writing, which at the time, I was unwilling to share.

That pain is long behind me, and I am able now to let the poem stand on its own merits, simply as a word picture. Really, it's more of an analogy or a metaphor.

The poem got a minor revision in May of 2010, but it is otherwise as originally written.