When You Cannot Help The Person You Most Want To Help Poem by Shalom Freedman

WHEN YOU CANNOT HELP THE PERSON YOU MOST WANT TO HELP

When you cannot help the person you most want to help
You are frustrated and angry at yourself

When you cannot help the person you most want to help
You write a small poem about it
And then go deep into the cave of your own loneliness
And scream out of the top of your lungs to G-d
About why you are expected to do the job
God should be doing-

When you cannot help the person you most want to help
You write a small poem
And in writing it
Try to forget your failure your impotence your impatience your anger your stupidity your total hopelessness-

You try to comfort yourself
By describing how you feel
And in this too
You do not help her-