Where Is The Joy`` Poem by Maryanne Richards

Where is the joy
That catches the heart
And comes in a moment
Unbidden, from nowhere,
And can just as quickly be gone.

From the deepest recesses
Something is stirring
That is different and new.

Joy is not that happiness
That comes and goes at will,
Along with the sorrow
That can follow with
Needs and wants not met.

Music, sport, money and fun
Cover the boredom of a mind
That's gone to sleep.
Entertainment the accepted drug of choice.

What has happened to the quiet walks
Along lonely country roads
Among the splendour of the natural world.
Or watching the clouds
As they race across the sky.

To sit beside a stream alone,
All thought melted away,
And in that solitude and space,
Seeing, listening and feeling,
All senses ablaze with 'what is'
Could that be joy,
Not held,
Each time anew.