Agony Poem By Sue Ellson Text, audio and description at https://sueellson.com/blog/agony-poem/ In agony clarity In agony grief In agony awareness That time is a thief It steals our memory Of joy so sweet It leaves us hungry To feel complete In agony we awaken To our own imperfection In agony we loosen Our grip on perfection But here in this place Where control has gone We suddenly see All that we’ve carried on The prize may have passed Or be on its way But the agony of this moment Has brought clarity to our day Agony narrows our lens It sharpens our focus The darkness illuminates The light within us So as I linger In my own agony My clearer vision Let’s me truly be It would be fair to say that I have spent a lot of my life trying to solve challenges. Some of those challenges have been more difficult than others. Today when I woke up, I didn’t have an immediate challenge. It felt strange. I didn’t have something I needed to focus on and I found my thoughts wandering around and I really struggled to decide what to do first. However, I know full well that when there is a crisis, or even just a deadline, the agony of that time limitation or fear of a consequence will help me rule out all of my other distractions and focus on exactly what needs to be done immediately. New parenthood is similar. When an infant is crying, you work out fairly quickly what needs to be done to make it stop. More via link