LAUGHTER

A lot of people say
My poems are too sad.
I guess they are,
But so is life.
Happiness is temporary,
Joy infinitely rare.
I love to laugh--------
My 'mucky' laugh-------
To giggle, shriek
And split my sides.
A laugh can fix so may things,
That awkward silence of the shy,
It heals an injured mind
Softens a stony heart
And blends a friendship well.
There have been thinkers
Who would tell us
Laughter is a waste of time.
A device of shallowness
And the idler's occupation.
I beg to disagree
I would spend my days
With laughter and good humour,
But as love is kin to hate,
So is laughter kin to grief,
There is none without the other.
The higher are the highs in life
The lower are the lows.
Is it because I laugh
I see the deeps?
Or to escape the deeps,
I laugh?

Dawn McDonald
© December 2002

Midi: "An die Musik"

Composer: Franz Schubert