Facing Regret, A Poem
Facing Regret, a poem:
I think one of the heaviest burdens
of human imagination
might be the ability
to have hindsight...
After it's all over,
past events start to seem
a lot more predictable
than they actually were.
In full color,
we start to see
what life would've looked like if only we had known
what was going to happen.
When we look back,
we can pinpoint
the conversations
that should've shown
us the clues.
We can feel the weight
of the actions
that should've been
a big hint.
We tell ourselves,
"if only I had known...
if only I had known..."
II
I do not know
where in your life
regret seems
to scream the loudest,
but I do hope,
that whenever
you find yourself
looking back
into the tunnel
that echoes
the dissonance
of the past,
decisions
hastily made
and good things
that didn't last,
I hope
you are able to hear
the music
in your other ear.
Even if it plays softly
and you can barely hear it
through the noise,
I hope you remember,
even here,
there is room
for other tunes.
The past may not change,
but at the same time,
the present moment
is calling you
to be gentle with yourself
as you learn
to allow your imagination
to play the notes
of an all-new song.
MHN
II
I wrote and shared this poem sometime back and I finally got around to finishing the art for it. I’ve never spent so much time on a single people before. It was hard to find the visual language for what I was trying to say.
With this piece I wanted to share “regret” as something more than a final point, but an invitation to see the past in a different ways. So when the dissonance of regret rings loudly in the ear, perhaps with grace, time, and practice one can began to hear the music in the other year.
