We Do Not Know How To Live/With The Pain Of Those We Love Poem by Shalom Freedman

We do not know how to live
With the pain of those we love
We long to help and heal
But when we cannot
We struggle with the guilt
Of not helping
We wonder if we should feel the same pain
As if this would diminish theirs
But we understand too the folly and vanity
Of this gesture
We do not know what to do
We should seek the way of practical help
But when we cannot
We try and try again to help
But when we do not
Our discomfort and anguish hurt
Though is not the pain of the physical pain
Our loved ones are to our dismay still suffering