A Heart That Swells
Sorrow.
Joy.
What is their measure?
Cheeks with traces of salty trails?
I have shed enough tears to fill an ocean,
yet still carry each within me.
Waves of sorrow balanced by waves of joy.
Swells that swallow my heart, yet set it free.
This poem is my response to Quadrille #146: Let’s Get Salty, the prompt from De Jackson at dVerse ~ Poets Pub, which is to use a form of the word salt in a 44-word poem (excluding title), with no required meter or rhyme.
rivrvlogr 
Life does tend to come with both. This is well-spilled, and I enjoyed your gentle rhyme.
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Thank you, De.
And thank you for the prompt.
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I’m planning to get around to the Quad challenge tomorrow, & hoping I can do it even half as well as you’ve done here, Brother. Thanks.
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Thank you, sir!
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the cosmological scales will forever be balancing
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Nice poem. I was especially captured by the line: “I have shed enough tears to fill an ocean,/yet still carry each within me.”
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Thank you. That’s the first line that came to me.
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Beautiful Ken! You have expressed this so well! Joys and sorrows mixed with salty tears!
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Ain’t that the way! Thank you, Dwight.
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You are welcome!
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I like this! Definitely agree with sorrow/joy a continuing mix (each with different “wave strengths” at different times) – and poetically this reads smooth as silk right up to the last line summation.
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I really feel the sentiment behind your poem, Ken: such thoughts ran through my head when I wrote mine, though I took a different approach in the end. ‘Pools of sorrow, waves of joy’ as John Lennon put it!
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Thank you. I actually thought of that line when I was writing! I just couldn’t get “pool” to work without “copping” John’s line.
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I usually copy 😅
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I honestly don’t know, Ken, but this is something I oft think about…
❤
David
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Thank you, David.
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That verse drew to a great close there, swallows but also sets free….wonderful…
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The alternative is to succumb to the weight — Not really an alternative. Thank you, Ain.
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This is lovely, Ken. I especially like the last two lines.
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Thank you, Merril. We have to be open to the positive.
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So true, Ken!
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I came Ken, I read, great work my friend — but I am not well. Lotsa tears. Be back soon.
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Thank you, Rob. Take care of yourself.
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The ebb and flow is present in all of it. How would we know one without the other? (K)
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Indeed. The key being an awareness of the light when in the darkness.
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This spoke to me, Ken. The never ending balancing act…
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Yes, and the desire for balance. Thank you
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Love it.. I sometimes wish I could cry, but I was taught not to do it, so I have lost that ability
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Thank you. I’m sure it takes a certain amount of detachment, but it sneaks up on me when I think I’m able to get past that moment.
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What is their measure?
Cheeks with traces of salty trails?
Used to discuss units of measure with my elementary school students. Used to tell my students that poets and scientists were one and the same, observers that took the measure of the observed. Love the reconciled contrasts in this poem.
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Thank you. I agree. Poets can’t help but to delve into the depths of a matter, a moment, or an emotion.
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Love this, Ken! Wonderful ending.
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🙂 Thank you, Sara.
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Lovely, Ken!
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Thank you!
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You’re welcome!
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