Somewhere a mother weeps for her lost child; <br />Her heart is cloaked in desperate tears. <br />Bless those tears, for were those tears denied <br />The cruelest act on earth would kinder be. <br />Those silent tears would wend their way on high, <br />There to scream aloud a mothers agony. <br />Disgrace to all mankind would be implied <br />Before the seat of highest majesty. <br />What fools men are who scorn the humble tear, <br />For lost to them is loves humility. <br />His love is scant who lives retentive fear; <br />His sympathy is dulled whose eye is dry; <br />His heart is dead whose shame is in a tear; <br />For did the greatest man on earth not cry? <br />Can greater proof of love be found than this? <br />To shed a tear for suffering or success <br />Reveals a knowledge that all wise men know: <br />Success is not the platform at the pinnacle attained <br />Success is every footstep on the rocky path below. <br />His life is lonely whose tears he cannot share, <br />The one whose tears for others cannot flow. <br />Spare me the strength of men who cannot bear <br />The suffering of another's heart exposed. <br />Dead trees whose hallow hearts have been disguised <br />And hidden in the pretext of their strength, <br />Unknowing that herein their weakness lies, <br />And lost to them all that tears represent. <br /> <br /> <br />*Written after a newscast of a lost boy, Nov.1981.<br /><br />Adeline Foster<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tears-236/
