Written by Irvin E. Allen "Our Poem" in honour of my Practicum Supervisor.
Dear colleague, I sensed the depth of your mood,
The frustration of helping those who often brood
When they should celebrate being young and growing
Instead of wishing to join the ranks of the unfeeling.
Their pain shoots across your soul as a red flash
That for only a brief, passing moment affects the rash
Never ending search for an end to the eternal bleakness
Of the day in, day out, struggle that’s so meaningless.
Flashes of enlightenment may brighten your folly
And then fade into a lingering blue melancholy
Which eventually dies in the encompassing darkness
Of the daily battle not to submit to eternal madness.
Take heart, for out of your melancholy low,
As it always does, will emerge an inner glow
Like the rising sun on a dewy, spring morn
And your slumbering hope will be reborn.
The sincerity of your tears waters your humanity
And renews your anger against the heartless insanity
Of human weakness, and man’s desire to retreat
From the very eternal dragons, he must defeat.
The warmth of your caring gives courage to those
You touch, to face life’s many unseen foes
Who threaten their very existence and would gladly
Sentence them to, at best, an endless mediocrity.
Even though each human creature hides behind a wall
Of various hue and symmetry, yet all
Add to the strange parch work of our existence
And give out a silent cry for loving acceptance.
