How Similar We Are Poem by Jim Yerman

When you look around this beautiful world…don't you find it odd
that every religion has a similar supplication…
even people who don't believe in God.

A wish, a hope, a thought…a prayer…a feeling we can't hide
that emerges from within us…
and goes out to anyone who's died.

Is that because no matter what or who our God…our color…our sex, our name
in the midst of grief and loss…
all sorrow is the same?

I know when I see other people grieving…they feel just like me…
their tears, their moans, their hurt is the same…
though they might express it differently.

We may not understand one another…we come from different faiths…
from different places
but there is no misunderstanding the sadness
and the grief upon our faces.

As we lay to rest the people killed in the synagogue…
as we mourn a world in disarray
so many people of so many faiths and places
have prayed for them in their own way.

When you look around this beautiful world…don't you find it bizarre
that in seeing the way all people grieve….
we find how similar we are?