One Would Have Been Enough to Make Life Worth Living

5 Comments

One Would Have Been Enough to Make Life Worth Living


If all I ever had in this fleet flower of a life,
Had been just one single slanting ray of light;
That would have been enough to make life worth its futile flight.
If all I had ever heard,
In this brief bathing of the sun,
Had been the song of a single bird;
That would have been enough sheer joyful fun,
To have made brief life worthwhile, when life were over and done.
If I had only smelled the perfumed pleasure of a single flower--
Honeysuckle, violet, buttercup, jasmine, lilac, carnation, or rose--
That would have been enough to make every bitter hour
Worth suffering--to enjoy such priceless sweet before life's close.
If I had tasted nothing but one apple or orange, one peach or plum, one blackberry or blueberry,
One watermelon, one grape, one pineapple, one mango, one tangerine, one pear, one strawberry:
That would have been enough to make life worth living, very.
If I had only felt the feel of one sweet lady's hair,
Or only for one moment kissed her silken skin,
It would have been enough to make me glad that I was there--
However briefly--in this world of pain and sorrow;
Of cruelty's crimes; of uncompassionate life-denying rules; of God-given erotic joy, miscalled sin.
I drain today as it slips away, toward the last tomorrow.
For this is still a world of so many a beautiful blessing;
And as my moments pass, I live and give each one my love's caressing.
Though my ultimate fate I cannot know beyond mere guessing,
This I know: My life has been wonderful and well worth living.
Even though, in the end, life is a loan recalled,
And not a permanent giving.
Though magic must be mauled,
And miracle must be marred--
And though it is so very hard,
In the nearing end, to have to lose sweet life and die--
And though my kind of cancer will not let my life pass in a gentle wane,
But will wrack it and wrench it from me by degrees and bites, in devouring pain--
My heart wells up with gratitude for every smile and time of happy laughter.
My time of life before death was worth living--no matter how I must die--
No matter what, or if nothing, may come after.
A single smiling moment, or one minute of life-joyful laughter,
Would have been enough to make my life worth all the tears I've had to cry.
I am grateful for my miraculous feeling heart and my thinking, living, magical mind--
I am grateful for all I have, still left, and for all I once had. 
I bless my well-loved, much-missed mother for giving me birth and raising me. 
No sorrow or suffering can make me so sad, that for my life I would not still be grateful and glad.
I know so much, so many things; but to the ultimate truth, I am blind.
But I am not blind to beauty, nor deaf to birdsong, music, and poetry;
I am grateful for the godlike gift of my precious me, my wondrous inner I;
And for all my loving living days.
As I pass on, to unknown final fate--forgetting all the pain, and all the loss--
With everything I am, and was, and had, going away with time's terrible farthest toss--
I still feel grateful for all that was joyful, happy, pleasureful, and good; and give God praise.

=======================


Written by Michael L.P.
aka MLP, aka PoetWithCancer, aka Mr. Poet, aka PWC
(I'm just me)
Copyright © 2012 by Michael L.P.  All rights reserved

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MindNumbing commented on One Would Have Been Enough to Make Life Worth Living

11-08-2010

Michael, your light shines so very brightly in this beautiful write, my friend. At this juncture of your life, having a positive attitude must be nearly impossible and the sheer strength that it must take to maintain that outlook is incredible. You, my friend, are incredible. This poem is incredible... and the line "I drain today as it slips away, toward the last tomorrow" speaks volumes and could easily stand alone. We, as humans, may not be immortal, but poetry like this will remain for lifetimes.

abuelita1 commented on One Would Have Been Enough to Make Life Worth Living

11-07-2010

I came back to read this just to read this first thing in the morning. Thank you. This piece of art had touched me beyond what words can express. Love...Super A

abuelita1 commented on One Would Have Been Enough to Make Life Worth Living

11-06-2010

YES........just once....how appropriate...how very true, Amazing!

abuelita1 commented on One Would Have Been Enough to Make Life Worth Living

11-06-2010

Your words make me smile, think, among the other enormous emotions I feel. You have done a great write, but more importantly a great service to those that have been blessed by knowing you. This is extremely moving, as you are as well. Thank you, Michael for have touching my life and my heart with yours. Absolutely beautiful... Super Angel ;)

Mayuna commented on One Would Have Been Enough to Make Life Worth Living

11-06-2010

This is extremely moving. Words can not even describe how it must be for you but you did such an amazing job of summing it up. God bless.

Poetry is what is lost in translation.

Robert Frost (1875-1963) American Poet.

PoetWithCancer’s Poems (224)

Title Comments
Title Comments
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Seasonal Ring 1
My Thanksgiving 0
God's Word 1
Under the Date Tree 1
A Few More Times 1
Divine and Diabolical World 0
Summer-Brief 2
Seasonal Ring 0
Shakespeare's Birthday and Death 0
Special Brian 0
I Remember Brian 0
Light of Life 0
Pain Has Defeated Me Today 1
The Old, Old Words 0
Home Is Where the Heart Is 0
A Sad Contemplative Christmas Today 0
Moments of Memory; In Memory of Moments 0
Sun and Rain, Joy and Pain: I Miss My Friend Brian 0
Dehumanized and Clinicized--N
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Not Full 0
Love, Loss, and Lennon 0
Dying Dream 0
Brian's Pure Love for His Lady 0
Two Loved Ladies Undergoing Surgery Now 0
The Masks Fall Off at Midnight 1
Prime of Life 1
Low Energy and Less Time: And Too Many Things to Do 1
Happy Veterans Day, Brian 0
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Thanksgiving 0
Autumn of Year; Autumn of Life 0
Brian's Birthday and New Year's Eve 0
Under a Constant Star (9/11) 0
Deep Time 0
Is There Anything Out There 2
Classics in the Closet 0
Nobody 0
Feeling the Wind 0
The Wild Doe and the Hunter 0
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Broken Birth 0
Missing Brian 0
Focus: Today, Happy 0
I Love You, Brian 0
The Ways and the Words of You 1
Stone Cry 0
Amore Immortale 0
Reality and Unreality 1
Lyrical Life 1
Easter 0
Shakespeare's Birthday 0
Friends During Need 1
Death--A Play--or the Final Act 0
Moods 0
I Was Worried About You 0
Song of Life 2
Me 1
Oh Mother of My Life, My Mind, My Heart--Happy Birthday (Sunday, April 3, 2011) 0
Your Money or Your Life 1
Poesis 0
A Last Look at the Moon 0
Tears for Brian: My Tears Spring Suddenly 0
Seventeen in the Past 1
Clusters 1
Suffering and Dying Where Love Is Least 1
Looking at People in a Restaurant, Talking to Brian 1
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A Single Fortune Cookie 6
The Meaning of Life 2
Dreamless 3
Prayers 3
Lost Love 2
I Thank My Mother for My Birthday and for Her Wonderful Mother Love 3
Lennon Lost His Life: And Now, So Has Teena Marie 2
All the Way with Part Way 2
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Dreaming and Seeming 3
Poem Prayer 2
Science, Poetry, Philosophy, and More 2
Super A, Abuelita1--Th
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Someday-Dying 2
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My Apparently Known Possible Fates in This World 1
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Using and Losing Time 1
Loveless Life 2
Good Life, Good Grief 1
Dreamless 1
Ontology versus Oncology 1
Now Time 2
No Present, No Future: All Past 3
Hippocratic Hell 1
First Light 2
Almost At the Limit [--A Sonnet] 1
Death-Trap 0
Broken 1
Birthday Termination 1
Moments 1
First and Last Cry 1
Love 2
Final Fragility 1
End of the World 1
Tripping 1
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Gifts that Go and Still Stay 1
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Enthusiasm: God Within 3
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About Me 1
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I and You: Unique and the Same 1
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Health-Care Reform and Hell on Earth 3
Psyche 3
My Bucket List (For Now) 4
My Most SCARED Moments 2
Children of the Stars 2
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Why More Now? 1
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Fall From a Great Height 1
A Memory 1
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A Loser, True 2
Time Stop 1
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Entre Enfer 1
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One Would Have Been Enough to Make Life Worth Living 5
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