Selfometer Poems

An Ode to Empathy

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Oldfield, Brenda M

Empathy,
Your name is as precious, as precious, as can be
You are, as human, as human, as can be
Your heart beats, so kindly, oh so kindly, over me
Your sensitivity, to others, lives in me, so heartily

You are the kinship, of two inner selves
Transforming, meshing you and me
An instinct, of compassion, relating one, to the other
Like the warmth, of a baby, embraced, by its mother

You fixate, the synchronicity, of lover’s eyes
A metamorphosis, of thoughts, which never lies
Enticing, friend and foe
In sweet tandem, to care, and to understand

Helping, one and all, reflect, each to the other
In time, in place, and in love, without any bother
You laugh, I laugh! You cry, I cry!
Soothing, the dreary toils, of life

Touching, expressing, and reciprocating
Reading, like an open book, exceedingly astute
You change, crystallize, and commute
Them, to us! Me, to you!

Resonating, crossing over, and merging
Similarities, of emotions, values and virtues
Overcoming, weary adversity
Bringing comfort, hope, and diversity

You emanate kindness
Shaping the unfeeling, into feeling
Making the unbearable, so bearable
Reconciling, divided selves, so miserable

No longer bereft, rejected, or abandoned
But piecing together, oh so gently, our broken hearts
Renewing, our sense of pain, oh so silently
To sublime calm, so very expediently

You dissipate fears, and loneliness, then hey!
We belong! Now worthy! Now human!
Binding the ties, which cherish all lives, in selflessness
Yes, you be the embodiment, of social connectedness

Ah, if only, if only man would resist
Their folly, of organized, mass antipathy
And eliminate, this sacrificing, of your caring identity,
Often in the name, of egotism, racism, and materialism

Unite and inoculate our world
Against this sickness, this relentless indifference
So energise, and prioritise, with humble insistence
And inject, the highest dose, oh so imaginable

Thus rejuvenate, oh the precious, the most precious
Unconquerable power, of empathy
Becoming as sincere, as truly, as worthy, of humanity
Amidst a tender cushion, of mutual consciousness

If only! If only, humankind would!
Only empathise!