Listening to the Stormy Beast

author’s note:

Try again.  Fail again.  Fail better.
               -- Samuel Beckett


LISTENING TO THE STORMY BEAST

Though I don’t
strike out at the world
sometimes in frustration
I do strike at myself

especially when
I try again and fail again
to resolve
some grievance I’ve carried too long.
Then I’ll wonder if
I can ever become
the better me I wish to be.

But at such times, sometimes
I will sit and listen down deep
and beneath my growling I will hear
the grief of a wounded beast

then in empathy
I will surrender
the lightning bolt
I’ve aimed at myself.

Painful listening, yes
but the lightning strike
would feel worse.

I say:
if someone in such conflict
can manage to pacify
their rumbling beastly storm
we’ve good reason to feel hope
for our squalling human world.

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