- Feeling Sorry -

By John Herlihy

The prevailing philosophy of our time

Seems to be never to say you are sorry.

Firstly, when people say they are sorry;

Just words, they are anything but sorry.

To be sorry has become just a formality,

A simple formality at that, no sincerity.

The words sound nice, but drift into wind,

Awash in absolution after we have sinned.

Another invasive philosophy of our time

To feel sorry when someone said sorry.

It’s fashionable to claim no need to be sorry.

Why fill up our lives with uncalled for worry?

I’m so very, very sorry becomes a habitude,

Nothing I do seems real without this platitude.

Hell no, I realize now that I never was sorry,

In fact, I feel a little sorry caught in such folly.

Then, the sorry fellow with sorry in his being;

If he doesn’t say sorry, this too has meaning.

He feels in his heart that he has done wrong,

The feeling strikes him as an ancient gong.

If he knows another has suffered this plight,

He tosses and turns, cannot sleep at night.

Upon awakening, he promises to say sorry,

That will hopefully put an end to the story.

In the end, the word sorry a word we borrow;

The word only gets lost in a profusion of sorrow.

Whether we say sorry and truly mean what we say,

Or we say sorry but have no intention anything to pay.

The word does have meaning and a number of uses,

We should say it honestly and harbor no false excuses.

The next time you find yourself saying sorry, remember,

All the sorrows that lie in the heart as an burning ember.

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(c) John Herlihy 20 September 2018