bierkergaard

Turn That Smile Upside Down Blessed are those mourning, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4 I think the above title is a stanza out of my epic poetry compilation "40 Days and 40 Nights: Dysfunctional Poetry for Men."  For about four years, commencing 20 or so years ago, starting with the suicide of a childhood friend/neighbor which cracked open something Noahic in my soul, I wrote 40 or so poems. I eventually xeroxed them all and put them in a little booklet which I then postal mailed to every good friend I had. The poems were maudlin for sure. Amateurish rhymes. Some good ideas amid the rubble. Most were grappling with the happiness/sadness paradigm and paradox. We think we want something, we get it, and it doesn't make us happy. We lose something cherished and it winds up being good that our hands were pried from it. Vexing indeed. At the time of the release, there was a woman I was quasi-dating (I did a lot of that) who I didn't know real well yet