The Struggle

I know the name of sorrow
It follows on this path
My face against the window pressed
The smudges blur my vision

Yes, I have asked for many things
But pain is not among them
The veil of shadow overcasts
An unexpected beauty

And what I crave is only joy
Without the bottom scraped
Against these shallow pleasures
This threadbare happiness

And yet the substance of the dream
Is hollow without struggle
And it is this I can’t accept
And wish I could embrace

But I am always dreaming
And in the blank despair
There is a dance of love and hope
Of life amidst the death

So teach me how I can
To enter wholly to the pain
To be complete within the flawed
Let me love to suffer

When I am strong enough
For strength I still feel weak
The words I cannot speak
Are ones that would uplift

So in the less idealized
When unknown dreams are realized
Within the struggle may I see
And meet you as I suffer

To see the grim touch as a gift
And in it great surrender
And from it only strength renewed
If strength is undefined

The struggle in my mind
Is beauty in the story
For there is darkness worse than pain
And this is left behind