So Easy To Mourn on Paper
By Jane Tawel
May 16, 2019
It’s so easy to mourn on paper.
Send a card,
Say a prayer,
Give a thought,
Act like you care.
It’s so easy to mourn at a distance;
Read the morning news,
Write a post,
Hop on the back
Of a famous quote.
The hard way comes with changing–
Just yourself,
Maybe the world,
Digging deep for
Love’s hidden pearls.
The difficult path is narrow.
Pretend their shoes you wear;
Not thoughts and prayers,
But sorrow.
It’s so easy to mourn on paper,
Where ink not ashes are worn.
But to mourn and die like a Savior,
Means to be completely reborn.
To cry like a little baby,
In need of a Great Big Daddy,
Is to know the day’s dark tragedy,
And a broken world’s true gravity.
But Oh! My soul connected
To Christ’s mourning
Is then resurrected,
By the hope of a God who mourns with us,
So that one day, we shall rise like Jesus.
It’s so easy to mourn on paper,
As a poet, oh, don’t I know it.
But to mourn with suffering others
Yes, strangers, yet somehow
my sisters and brothers;
to not dry my eyes,
but to weep by their sides
is at least one small stride,
In reducing my pride.
Blessed are those who cry
And cry,
And cry,
with those who cry,
“Save us, Adonai!”
For the long path of grief,
Goes a short way towards new life.
A baby is not born alive,
Unless The Physician hears cries.
Each day my rebirth
In The One who loved Earth,
Enough to bring life
To our sorrow and strife,
Will give my sad heart
Like a child, a new start.
And with that first breath and first weeping sight,
I breathe in God’s truth, God’s love, and God’s light.
If I die with Him
And mourn with them,
then
In that final morning
I will wake — no more mourning!
What a life that will be
When joy is so easy.
So God, help me today
And hereafter, each morning
To heed your Word’s warning
To do, not just say,
To act, not just pray,
To love, not just pen,
For enemy, and friend.
Like a baby just born,
Please God, help me to mourn;
To spread love of The Brother,
Christ, Who, like a mother,
Wept for us all.
For, we, After The Fall,
Had so lost our way,
That The Christ had to pay
For our lives, on the Cross.
So that all we have lost,
Through our sin and sorrow,
May just as the Christ,
Be restored on that ‘morrow,
When tears are all dried,
And with Him we will rise.
Ah, Lord, help me to weep,
With a God who still seeps
Life through the pages
And through all the ages,
In The Word and The words,
in the flowers and birds,
in the fields and the stars,
and in each beating heart,
of Your children, boys and girls,
throughout the whole world.
Lord, in You
Our love be made whole,
So that we may be holy.
Lord, in You,
Our words be true,
That we may be like You.
Lord, in You,
Our paths be straight,
So we may be healed from hate.
Lord, in You,
May our strengths be bound,
So that in You, our joy is found.
Lord, in You,
our mourning make blessed,
So, we may be resurrected.
It’s so easy to mourn on paper,
But so hard to do on Christ’s rood.
Yet, it’s only through blood
There is life from Above.
So no matter how crude,
I will suffer with you,
And in mourning
Will learn how to love.
Jane Tawel 