Finding Empathy

for me the struggle finding empathy for enemies

is immense...

it requires the greatest effort within me,

and another grand internal destruction.

several vigorous smashing's of various stereotypes,

myriad slashing and burning's of newly poisoned fields...

it's a grand campaign of resetting,

     and it leaves everything so very messy inside.

after the systematic dismissing of built up and ingrained inaccuracies,

after the remembering and then the forgetting of first impressions,

after the searching of the mental rubble, after then the finding,

after then the discovering;

from among the rubble...

that we are all far more similar

than very much different,

and behind that understanding

lies easy empathy for everyone.

even your enemies,

even in bad weather on a s****y monday morning.

but it is a renewable struggle because I will forget again.

and so will you.

and so will they.

empathy is a fleeting thing.

Reviews

[Papaya]

When you break it all down, to the foundation of who we are, we are all pretty much the same. It is human to feel, to err and it is human to forgive. Even the enemy...

I wrote a lot more but it sounded cheesy so I deleted it. You have errors, do you care. I will message you if want to fix them.

[Davidgeo]

I do care...

[KTizzle]

"lies easy empathy for everyone" I do not really like this line because you spent the whole poem trying to tell the reader how difficult it is to find empathy and describe it as easy even for the enemy. I find empathy to be the hardest when it is for my enemy. I would have liked more about that line to make it sound right or another adjective, maybe "smooth" but that's just me.

Otherwise, I found this poem to be simple, but it tackled an interesting topic I think. Empathy is a mysterious thing now that I think about it. My favorite line would have to be the very last line because it reminds me that everyone goes through the process of forgiving others. Forgiving others requires empathy.

Good job.

Thanks for posting!

[Davidgeo]

That's a good review. Thank you. Maybe I'll take another look at this with the things you mentioned in mind. Probably not though, I was a little drunk when I wrote this so I don't think I could get back into it.