Dear Devotee of Sadness²
Unhappiness Pollutes not only our
Inner Being and all those around us –
But also the Collective Human Psyche³
Variable Passions throng our Constant Woe⁴
The Familiar Surroundings haven’t Darkened
For all our Grief, nor Sickened for all our Pain⁵
Nae Daffing, nae Gabbing, but Sighing & Sabbing⁶
Unhappy Verse: Witnesse of my Unhappie state⁷
Sorrow Lingers making our Soul Soil Deep⁸
Filled with a Sadness – that is yet
Blessed and Without Bitterness⁹
I’m Proud of my Sadness:
It means I am more Alive¹⁰
¹ John Milton, Il Penseroso
² Hermann Hesse tr. Richard & Clara Winston, Magister Ludi
³ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
⁴ William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis
⁵ Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
⁶ Jane Elliot, A Lament for Flodden
⁷ Edmund Spenser, Iambicum Trimetrum
⁸ Bell Hooks, Appalachian Elegy 50
⁹ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
¹⁰ Don Hertzfeldt, World of Tomorrow