What Matters

A dear friend of mine wrote this in her MySpace blog a few days ago. The poem touched me to no end (more than likely because of that very topic in the Padded Room) and I asked her for her permission (and received it) to bring it over here to share with all of you. She says it's one of her very first poems that she's written in a very long time that, as she put it, "didn't have an ounce of 'trying to prove something to myself or anyone else' in it". I keep saying she really needs to start getting her stuff published....



what matters

when it's taken away
when the sun ceases to shine
and the order of nature is gone, gone, utterly gone
what matters is this, it was there once

when a single event changes all
when chaos ensues
and the end of something important has occurred
what matters is this, one is still alive

when someone tells you its over (or they are no longer up to it)
when there is nothing left to say
and they had stopped listening long ago it seems
what matters is this, healing has already begun

i sit on the picnic table where it all began the circle is now complete
because now i am the alone
the alone i was before that other time sitting here
with a letter in hand
feeling hope and happiness
i thought my heart would not be capable of again

what matters now is this
i was once there (it happened)
i am still alive (and able to love regardless)
my healing has already begun (it never stopped, growth is like that)
what matters now is this
i still, have and always will have the capacity to love you
nothing's changed on my part
even if it has on yours


somehow i'm richer having lived through this
somehow i am happy i had loved and, to all appearances, lost
i've lost nothing and gained so much more

-M Diddio