Allan Koven Poet Free verse

Notes About The Poem

Written for those who cannot understand the suffering of this world.

It is beyond human comprehension and we all struggle to find some meaning. Most of the time, we are left empty and our compassion becomes overwhelming.  Many rush to bring their caring to the fields of sorrow. Most often, the world watches mesmerized and desensitized and hundreds of thousands die; sometimes millions. It denigrates the soul of mankind. But generations come and generations go and nothing changes.

The answers, I believe, to this conundrum, are not to found in this world.

CAK

Suffer Not

SUFFER NOT

Suffer not o man she cried desperate for consolation
Compassion twisted and tore at her heart 
but the world she knew was silent.

Painful sounds from death filled wars, would wound her more
than jagged poison tipped arrows that pierced much too deeply.
And yet she carried on in quiet song as the world she knew kept silent.

And if the dying weren't enough, the sight of bloated bellies
and distraught mothers and sacked villages laid bare
by the unwilled force of child soldiers, would crush her spirit. 
How could the world she knew keep silent?

Thinking that God did not understand her despair 
She wept with abeyant tears that could not flow 
as the world she knew kept silent.

To live, to die in the soiled spattered flow of time
passing through, passing through
Is the secret so sublime? Cannot she grieve? 
Then silence no more was heard.

Instead a curious word within emerged 
from her meditation of life's graces
a Hebrew word "Bitachon"
What was not known in agonies 
was revealed in her silence.

C.A.K. 1-9-201

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Skat A June 12, 2015 at 1:30 AM Hi Allan, Congratulations on having your poem featured this week. SKAT love Allan Koven June 12, 2015 at 11:08 AM Thank you Skat A, always good to hear from you. Glad you are still active on Poetry Soup. You make things interesting for all of us. Hugs, Allan

Ralph Sergi June 10, 2015 at 8:45 AM Hi Allen: A very well written and intense poem. I suppose you need to have the yin as well as the yang in poetry.

Marquis Mc Mills-Cooper November 1, 2013 at 12:48 PM The imagery your words express are tough to look at, but are communicated very elegantly. I love to write about love and romance, but sometimes we have to go to this place to remind ourselves of how cruel this world can be -this isn't a fairytale... Good Job! MC Allan Koven November 1, 2013 at 1:01 PM Many in this world lament the agonies and horrific conditions some life and die with. I have no answers, only that our Creator has his purpose. Allan

Evrod Samuel September 23, 2013 at 7:03 PM its like when I read the newspapers I feel like she does ...the world is a place of blood letting and lives lost wilfully..its sad.... Allan Koven September 23, 2013 at 7:29 PM Yes, it's true but life also has wonderment, joy, love, compassion, and all the emotional positives that for many balance the scales. It is called the duality of life. Allan

Karl Marszalowicz July 29, 2013 at 11:32 AM I understand not fighting back but is she conceding to what is happening like the others by the end of this poem? Allan Koven July 30, 2013 at 9:56 AM Conceding? She suffers the agonies of the world. And answers elude her until the end when she hears the word "Bitichon" God created the world and reasons for all of life. Perhaps we need to trust that there is more to know than we can understand. Thanks for your comment.

William J. Jr. Atfield June 14, 2013 at 3:33 PM Allan : I did find, the few of your poem I have found the time to read, superbly deep, sublimely expressive, humanitarian in essence and of excellent quality. Gives me cause for second thoughts . B. J. “A” 2

Elai Cee June 3, 2013 at 10:39 AM Only that I can say is beautiful! thumbs up!...i really love this kind of structure!...Elai