Sorrow Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

Sorrow I will not sit with you.
I will not wait while my life drains away.
I will not listen to you insist
That I am nothing but living dust
Wasting the undeserved love of others.

I may not be great.
I may not be special in any way.
I may never be forgotten
Because I was never remembered.
But I will live my allotted time
And leave eternity to the wise.

My existence does no harm.
My days do not take away from time.
My mistakes are mine to accept.
I will not dwell on my imperfections.

Joy is as fickle as it is fleeting.
I will not chase what I cannot keep.
But I can sit in peace.
I can try to silence my mind.
I can content myself with emptiness.

And maybe if I can achieve a sense of stillness within
I can expel the phantom critics and their endless derision.
One by one I will drive away my self-destructive selves
Until I am left with nothing but the nothing that is all.