Suffering

All that day long I spent the hours with suffering.
I woke to find her sitting by my bed.
She stalked my footsteps while time slowed to timeless,
Tortured my sight, came close in what was said.

She asked me no more than that, beneath unwelcome,
I might be mindful of her grant of grace.
I still can smile, amused, when I remember
How I surprised her when I kissed her face.

-Jessica Powers, Selected Poems

3 Responses

  1. St. Padre Pio was once asked: “what is suffering to you padre?”; he answered: “my daily bread”.
    suffering without Love is torture and real Love, oh LOVE…the Disciple in not unlike the Master.

    thank you for these Insightful posts on suffering; by embracing the pain we embrace the remedy.

  2. At the risk of being insensitive and irreverant, I must say that the subject of this poem sounds a lot lkie my cat!

    1. at the risk of being sensitive and reverent you have, in the simplicity of truth, stated something quite profound; that is to say: ‘love suffers with Love’ 🙂
      I once read that we know more about the ‘mystery of the angels’ than we do about the ‘mystery of the animals’. my experience too is that the more I am present to them (the animals) in their uniqueness, along with the awareness that the same Creator made them out of Love, the more they reveal their ‘mystery in God’ to me.