Laying Down the Tools of Pain

This piece, this poem, which he sometimes refers to, not as a poem but an "eloquence", was written back during the Venice years to his muse "The Truth". It is philosophical, but behind the philosophy is a romantic impulse.


Laying Down the Tools of Pain

We are better than our rationale, fashioning
our fronted personalities on lessons learned
and burned into us with the lash of pain, fading
only slightly in the shadows of our somnambulance.
I have lived more than a life in my life, and found
that the unilateral gift is better than the exchange
of poisoned arrows, narrow heart, narrow minds,
those who stand behind the pillars rather than atop,
and never taste the truth without a smirk. Yet, still,
life is more than the madness we perpetuate when we
close our minds, close our hearts, close our lives
to the infinite possibilities of love. And if I alone
understand this, I will not bend, will not pretend
that I can bury words and actions with a shrug, for
it is better to love alone than hate with the masses,
for when we let down the fears that drive us, we
achieve at least a shadow of the image of God.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.