There are many ways of defining compassion. For us it is made of acts that transfer love and joy that uplifts or heals another’s sense of being. Such acts are within nature itself and also flow between people that are not individually connected; probably the most powerful acts of compassion are ones that occur between individuals where one person acts in a way that transfers joy (better said than sharing despair) uplifting and repairing another’s sense of self.
Compassion
Sunrise warms, brings sweet content
and sweeps away night’s perilous dark.
Born from within these hosts of shadow,
in stark contrast it fills the heart.
On meadows wide its free light tugs,
lifting gems of colours spun
from back laid cloth of varied green,
against a sky azure, blue.
With this glimpse of nature’s art,
We touch in awe, a compassionate earth.
A company of players tumble in a ring.
Dancers dance in elven throng,
that carries eye in wondered line.
Musicians play a melody uplifting;
taking thought on wistful wing.
These acts that gift compassion,
sharing skill in joined delight.
The bond that ties a mother
to the child shaped from her frame.
Deep forged, engrained emotions,
protecting it from harm.
Rivulets of love flow free,
as summer rain on sun burnt rock
forms pools that swathes and soothes all hurt,
immersing both in happiness;
an ultimate compassion.
As burden bent humanity
trips in stumbled gait,
seeking in despair, relief.
The bonus flabby crowd; ‘that’s vogue’;
cross the road and pass on by.
Don’t understand!
The Prada handbags squeezed in jewelled hand,
comment on the weather looking at the sky.
In their minds they do not see,
this world they do not know, cannot be.
The hand that bends to help
Stops their selling cry, “Big Issue”.
Then bends and straining lifts the waif,
leads the way to a nearby place,
where steaming soup salves the flesh.
Stops and shares their story
and with open heart says, “Come back”.
Smiles and keeps returning
as a comfort and a guide.
In that act of reaching, true compassion lies.
The ‘cwtch’ that cradles broken form.
The act of joy in sharing.
A basket woven of compassion’s strands
holds the secrets of remaking.
Rob T