I hope you never make a promise
Before you realize what the cost is
And you learn how to make amends

I hope for her sake that you're honest
When you've lost it
And you never try to force a feeling

I hope I never minimize
The dreams I've always had inside
Just to make a man feel taller

I'm thankful and I sympathize
The years I had you by my side
You never tried to make me feel smaller

And still, our distance just grew farther
And still, loving you grew harder

Pain is subjective,
Physical and emotional,
Pain can be:
Dull,pins and needles,
Aching,cramping,stabbing,
Burning,tingling, shooting.
Pain can cause:
Fear,stress ,anxiety and even depression.
Pain is what an individual patient experiences  and feels,
No one can suffer your pain for you,
Others can only sympathize  or pray for you.

For all of us who have bashed ourselves numb
trying to be there
(for our brothers)

For all of us who have locked our hearts inside
settling with a joke
(for our fathers)

For all of us who have loved them more than ourselves
more than we could handle
(for our men)

For all of us who keeps putting our friends before us
always coming last place
(for our loved ones)

For all of us whose hearts are out there, feeling with everyone
trying to save strangers with one look
(for our fellow humans)

For all of us who can have amnesty and forgiveness to all others
seeing their imperfections as beauty
(for everyone besides us)

For us
We will learn
We will sympathize
We will passionately love ourselves
more than we have loved anyone else

At last
we will free ourselves

.        Tear in the eye
     wound in the heart

   Teardrops ... that drip
       from these eyes
  shall never be hidden
No mask of humiliation
          shall cloak
   an empathetic soul

Tears fall without shame ...

   Cleansing tears wept
       of undisguised
   merciful surrender,
  purging the essence
    of mending heart;
         shamelessly
       pouring forth,
            unsifted 
     grain and chaff
     together as one
   to willingly exhale
compassionate breathe ―
     into a sympathy
  impoverished  world

      Being mindful ―
      never wanting
   misspoken words
         to further
     another’s pain
      when there is
   an unwillingness
to unveil the very core,
the wisdom of silence
             reveals

Lean into imperfection's blossoms …

    Embrace the light
     from disregarded
           tears shed,
   releasing the traces
   of the spirit of love
      within the soul

         Blessed be
     the empathetic
         almsgiver
consoling with love
       without pity
       Giving love
        is to share
    unconditionally
with eternal purpose;
      flooding forth
   a flow of empathy
         onto a love
     deprived world …

       Love more ~


                                                          ­      *Harlon Rivers

expression of impressions in sand
revisions of depressions in land
I'm clenching the rope of hopes last strand  
i'm grasping  intensely as i can
everyone has there own disguise
truth realized through pure eyes
in human blood they wash there hands
You carry your fire and brimstone inside

expression of impressions in sand
revisions of depressions in land
you see the blood on the helping hand
I am longing to find this feeling so grand
I would like to try to read your mind
darkness underneath a smile so kind
a demon behind timid mouse eyes
such reality declined you left behind