Finding Happiness Poem by Kelly Iyogun

'They say...'

How strange those words have become.

They say,

' Find not thy happiness in another,
Lest thou lose thyself when they depart.'

Perhaps they speak with wisdom.

Or perhaps they speak from wounds.

A noble warning,
One I, too, once believed.

Yet love has ever been a delightful rebel,
And the heart, a willing conspirator.

For against every caution,
Against every whispered counsel,
Against every fear that love might one day leave me empty,

I found happiness...

In you.

Not because you complete me,
For I was whole long before our paths entwined.

But because you awakened the parts of me
That had forgotten how to dance,
How to breathe deeply,
How to believe that ordinary days
Could still carry extraordinary joy.

Not as a sailor clings to drifting wood,
Nor as a beggar grasps at borrowed bread,

But as dawn belongs to morning,
As rivers surrender to the sea,
As flowers, without instruction,
Turn their faces toward the sun,

So does my soul,
Without effort,
Without command,
Find its way to you.

You have become my quiet strength,
The pillar upon which my weary days lean,
The gentle hand that stills every storm,
Without ever asking to be praised.

Pray, tell me...

How dost thou make me smile
When thou art not even near?

How is it that thy absence
Still carries thy presence?

How do I laugh
At thoughts thou hast never heard,
Smile at conversations we have yet to share,
And find comfort in the quiet certainty
That somewhere beneath this same sky,
Thou simply art?

'Tis a mystery no scholar shall unravel.

The philosophers may reason,
The poets may write,
The astronomers may chart the heavens,

Yet none have studied
How the mere thought of thee
Can brighten an ordinary afternoon,
As though the stars themselves
Had altered their course
Simply to favour my heart.

Thou hast done
What no king with all his kingdoms,
No poet with all his verses,
No musician with all his melodies
Could ever accomplish.

Thou hast made the ordinary...

Sacred.

A simple greeting becomes a love letter.

A passing glance
Outshines the evening stars.

The sound of thy laughter
Mends fractures
Thou never knewest were there,
Its echo lingering
Long after the music has faded.

The smallest kindness from thee
Feels as though the world itself
Paused, if only for a moment,
That I might breathe a little easier.

It is as though
Thou whispered unto the heavens,
And they, in quiet obedience,
Rearranged the stars
Merely to light my path home.

You make silence sound like music.

Distance loses its cruelty.

And time itself
Walks more gently
Whenever it carries your name.

Sometimes I wonder
Whether the Creator,
With quiet delight,
Fashioned one soul
To remind another
That life was never meant
To be merely endured.

Perhaps...

That soul was yours.

For you have turned my winters
Into patient springs.

You have taught weary days
How to bloom again.

You have made hope
Feel less like wishing,
And more like remembering.

If love has a language,
I hear it in your laughter.

If peace has a dwelling,
I have found its address
Within your heart.

If happiness were a kingdom,
Its gates would bear your name.

If joy were a melody,
Your heartbeat would keep its rhythm.

If peace were a home,
I would gladly lose my way,
Knowing every road
Would somehow lead me
Back to your doorstep.

So let the world continue saying
That one ought not find happiness
Within another.

I shall neither argue,
Nor defend myself.

For I searched the world,
Thinking joy dwelt in places,
In victories,
In dreams yet fulfilled,

Only to discover
It had been smiling back at me
Through your eyes all along.

And if this be folly,

Then let wisdom wait.

For I have wandered long enough.

At last,

I have found happiness.

Not in a place.

Not in a season.

Not in a dream.

But in a soul...

And she smiled back.

So if ever they ask me
Where happiness lives,

I shall not point
To fortunes,
Nor distant horizons,
Nor the promises of tomorrow.

I shall simply smile...

And whisper your name.