Soldier's Winter Poem by Eric Rhodes

Divorced of repression
I am now free to show my love for you,
which shakes and heaves this temple
with waves of endless sorrow.
My ego shadowed your illuminated love
with cloudy ideologies of freedom,
fear and faith,
while I doled out unimaginable suffering as currency.
Now, scraped clean on the rocks
of empathy,
the pain of thousands of years
batters this vessel
with one towering rogue wave
after another,
splintering my frame from bow to stern.
Oh my love, I have arrived
into the full force of a soldier’s winter,
wading through the clogged drains
of pain, making way for the fresh spring
of your compassionate love.


(2008)
This was written after an intense dream. The age of war is ending and conflict resolution will be centered around empathy and love of our fellow beings.