Be Glad That You Are In Pain Now.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

know what, my dear,
there are more poems in pain

pleasure
does not give you much

happiness
is nothing but complacency
in waiting

be glad,
are you still in pain?

be joyful amidst this struggle to be set free
from the
pain of
loneliness,

oh, i can attest to its
truth,

its unrecognized usefulness
for our
very own
spiritual growth,

this cleansing,
this purification

where happiness in the face of an accounting
becomes so bare

that it amounts to nothing.