Some Pain Should Not Be Forgotten Poem by Patti Masterman

Some pain should not be forgotten;
Though you are always told
That pain is not a good thing for remembering.
But on that first day that you arrived,
My body's struggles were well documented
On the seismograph beside the bed,
A tremendous struggle, on the Richter scale;
The shock waves growing taller and ever closer together:
Proof positive, of being altogether broken open
So you could pass through the portal
Into this world; some pain is a positive joy
Even if at times it might seem too much to withstand.

I realize now that no pain would have been too much;
No pain, that you were ever borne in, on the wave of
And even the memory of the pain can only remind me
Of the miracle that came, in the person of you
For my heart was sundered also, on that day
In order that a small part of it should ignite your being,
As my future flame, in darkness.
And we have each become a doorway for the other now;
Together following our own fracture lines
To our own place in the universe, and when I am reborn
I know that you will be there to hold my hand
On that passage that will take me all the way
Through the waiting portal, of another.