Release

This poem, an English class assignment when I was a Junior in High School, was eventually published, at the cost of $35, in the American Poetry Anthology 1986 — my first published poem. It was written in 1983.

A tear is a bird set free
from its cage of sorrow.

The wolf’s lonely cry in the night
can be a tear sent from the depths of his soul.

Tears are a symbol
of all the anguish kept inside and finally set free
only to be built up again.

Tears are a small rain
cleansing the heart and mind of suffering.

A tear is the very essence
the very embodiment
of release.

A tear sets one free
of one’s internal sorrow.