-- Pleasure and Pain --
by John Herlihy
Worth mentioning the pleasure of pain,
Through suffering lies sweetness of gain.
Worth mentioning the pain of pleasure,
The sweetness of joy in limited measure.
Expectations of suffering held in the palm,
Expectations of happiness sung as a psalm.
The melancholy of pain sings a song pure,
The frivolity of pleasure sings a song sure.
In the pain of suffering lies a thing to learn,
A spark of pleasure as fading embers burn.
Pleasure pleasant but where’s the rapture,
Pain unpleasant when it our senses capture.
One person’s pleasure another person’s pain,
One person saved while another person slain.
Beware the possibility found in loss and gain,
There between the lines of pleasure and pain.
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Copyright ©John Herlihy
Friday 26 April 2024
However, pain, whether it be physical or mental, is usually a warning to our brain that we are either hurting ourselves physically or doing something that is hurting us mentally. Then telling us to stop the behavior or the physical pain like having surgery to stop hernia pain rather than enduring it.
As one who experienced pain so great that I had to be on morphine for 20 days and still felt like my arms were encased in barrels of biting ants… If you've ever been bitten by a fire ant like I have, you will know… And, having experienced physical pain for the rest of my life, since, have chosen to have my brain basically ignore it when my brain is actively engaged, like right now writing to you or doing my writing rather than choosing pain pills that can be very addictive and even deadly.
As for mental pain, I've experienced that, too. But I've found that by being kind to others and not letting that kind of action toward me lower my self-esteem or depress me anymore allows me to be generally happy regardless of what comes.
Ron
My most identifiable part of the poem is:
In the pain of suffering lies a thing to learn,
A spark of pleasure as fading embers burn.
How true it can be that awaiting beneath the embers is that spark of pleasure. Well done.