The Destructive Disease of the Soul

No amount of thought 
Could negate 
Suffering in the mind 
Of Francis Phoenix. 
                                                              
That much he had always believed, 
That humanity is a sad, lost 
And suffering race.  
Sometimes he felt it so strongly 
That the worship of a Saviour seemed 
To be the only sane act on earth, 
And then it passed.
 
It was not increasing callousness, 
But an increase in the number of moments 
He felt quite intoxicated with compassion 
That had soured Frank's outlook.
                                                              
During those moments, he wept 
For all those he'd ever been cruel to. 
He could be so hard on people, 
So terribly hard.
To whom could he ask forgiveness? 
                                                              
It was his sensitivity 
That bred those moments of Christlike love, 
When he cared so little for himself, 
For his body, even for his soul
When it was the soul of his father, 
The soul of his mother, 
The souls of his friends and relatives 
And everyone he'd ever known 
That he cared about. 
                                                              
That was truth, that was reality, 
That was the purpose of all human life, 
That love, that benevolence, 
That absolute forgiveness.  
Otherworldly love is painful, 
But it is the only true freedom known to Man. 
Too much thought eventually produces the conviction 
That nothing is worth doing. 
Thought is a destructive disease of the soul.

(Both "The Destructive Disease of the Soul" and "The Compensatory Man Par Excellence" possess as their starting points a novel written at an estimate around 1987. I believe most of it was destroyed some six years thereafter.)
Copyright © | Year Posted 2015

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