A Meeting With Joy And Pain Poem by Kelsey Clark

Both Joy and Pain are joining me this evening.
They are not accustomed to being together,
not to mention their natural displeasure
for the other’s faulty reasoning.

Joy has come with news
of spring and renewal of life.
There should be no room for strife;
it is pain we must refuse.

To heck with Joy, says Pain.
You are clearly entrapped,
by your own denial and neglect
of the horrors you can’t explain.

The two argue for awhile,
each with complaints
about the picture the other paints,
while I just wait and smile.

Suddenly Pain stops,
he’s noticed my smirk.
You’re enjoying this, you jerk!
Come on and speak up. Talk!

My face, now serious, turns to them both.
There’s a reason for this meeting,
not simply a greeting.
It’s a plee for understanding and growth.

Joy feels my stare.
What have I to do with this?
It is I who give you Bliss,
not pain and despair.

Tell me then, Joy, in what do you find strength?
Is it the non-existence of pain,
dancing in the rain,
or putting faith in an unseen wavelength?

And tell me, Pain, how can you say
that our troubles define us
even though One designed us
to worship in Paradise one day.

You two believe you are separate.
Opposites forces,
always at war;
seeing the other as inadequate.

Yet from the outside, I see the truth.
Pain needs Joy,
without it we’re destroyed,
because it is in Joy that we find love’s proof.

For if life were deprived of this,
the world would rot
right here on the spot,
from the hopeless cries that persist.

Pain is also needed in the world,
for without hardships
the soul cannot come to grips
with the presence of Joy in the crippled.

Most think Joy means content,
a physical well-being.
But this is deceiving,
for this was not Joy’s intent.

The true connection between the two
lies in faith,
in the hope of the saved.
The promise of being renewed.

As I look at Joy and Pain, I see a new light.
Their eyes look clear,
hate has disappeared,
and in its place is delight.

Thank you, says Joy, I’m now grateful for Pain.
I had not before seen
the underlying meaning
of my existence in the midst of disdain.

Pain, now soft and benign,
says I am grateful too
for the Joy and good news
that keeps mankind alive.

As the meeting comes to a close,
the two meet eyes
and for the first time recognize
that their identities are not opposed.