Rehearsing And Reversing The Pain Of Absence Poem by gershon hepner

We can't rehearse the pain of absence, though we may
anticipate it ritually, reminding
ourselves that every moment we're allowed to stay
together gives us new insight by finding
what till then we'd not seen in one another. Death
of every absence is a paradigm
that is atypical. We can, alive, catch breath,
reversing pain of absence, taking time
to find within the presence that we'll come to miss
all the qualities that lie below
the surface. We must look for them before they dis-
sipate, and can't be welcomed once they go.