Poetry Friday - Avoiding Joy

It's Poetry Friday!  I love this day!  And I love visiting Mary Lee's site, so it is doubly fun today as she is hosting all our poetry links.  Go visit Mary Lee at A Year of Reading.  Check out all the other offerings!

Is this not joy?

Last week on Thursday, the Spiritual Thursday post was to talk about "finding joy". Margaret Simon had the prompt and was our hostess that day.

Well, I had started this poem about finding joy and then lost it - or forgot about it.  Then on Friday morning, I was looking for something and in my purse I found this folded up North Country Harley Davidson invoice with scribbles on it.  It was the poem I'd started while we were riding in the car, when I started thinking about the topic of Finding Joy, its original title. As I began writing, though, it was clear that it was more about how we can refuse to find joy, preferring instead to wallow in self-pity, depression, unhappiness...
Have you ever avoided joy?

I've seen people do this... ME?  Of course, it is more understandable when I do it!!  LOL!  The poem was spurred by my own actions at times when I just wanted to wallow or be difficult, and thinking about how hard it was to snap out of it and "succumb to" good thoughts and a smile!

I remind myself that it is easier sometimes to find the bad in things than the good when you are on a roll!  However, it is just as easy to find the good and get on that roll!  It might involve putting the brakes on hard and almost upsetting yourself to do it, but it is worth it and always do-able.

I want to stop the Pollyanna-eze here, though.  I admit there will be times when it isn't as easy as one would like, and I can't say I am always successful at it.
(Yeah, like this week when I wasn't too happy with some of the details of our kitchen cabinet  installation...  but I digress... back to joy so I can avoid going down that path again...)

Avoiding Joy

Did you ever avoid finding joy?

I know it can be done:

Refuse to muse on trees,

Deny the warming sun,

Turn from a dewy bloom,

Rebuke the glinting sea,

Look through disdaining eyes,

Hold on to jealousy,

Drain color from a sunset,

Remain in shadowed vale,

Still a robin's echoing trill,

Pursue a lonesome trail,

Trade the sweetest laughter

For hot and bitter tears,

Decline the tiniest hint

Of any smile that nears;

Turn away a touch,

Slough off all advice:

You haven't need of such,

Embrace your heart of ice.

I've seen it being done;

It seems a sorry goal

To uninvite a joyfulness

For sorrow in your soul

When it could very easily

Be welcomed in your heart.

It's hard at first, but when you do

A hum will likely start,

And slowly seeping past the doubts

It starts to overflow;

It's scary when the singing starts

With words you do not know.

Just go with it, look through new eyes,

The ones without defeat,

And you might find the world out there

Is bountiful and sweet.

It's more than we deserve in life;

Be watchful for each stone -

For turning them we'll likely find

Some blessing yet unshown.

Embrace the joy of blessings


Melt your ice with flame;


If you refuse the joy in life


You’ve only you to blame.




by Donna JT Smith, 2017

Have you ever avoided joy???