Wednesday 20 May 2015

POETS UNITED - HAPPINESS

“Be happy for this moment, for this moment is your life.” - Omar Khayyám

This week Susan of Poets United has set the theme of “happiness”, on which participants are to contribute a poem.


Defining happiness can be difficult as it means many different things to different people. Some people say they are happy if they are experiencing well-being, have a high quality of life and if they are flourishing. Some equate happiness with contentment. Other people take a more hedonistic approach and say they are happy when they are successful in their search for pleasant (and avoidance of unpleasant!) experiences.


Some of us, look at happiness in a more holistic way, believing in living life fully and in a deeply satisfying way. This may include unpleasant experiences together with the pleasant ones, but happiness implies that we can cope with the unpleasantness, being able to make positives of negatives and being content knowing that one has done the right thing at the right time, and that one has acted with consideration for others, has been kind, compassionate and selfless. It is a case of living one’s life with virtue and probity and being rewarded with happiness.


If this sounds too philosophical for you, then you can simply think of happiness as being a string of moments of feeling good because you are pleasing yourself, and at the same time not only not displeasing others, but also making them experience good feelings as well. And this for me is paramount – happiness is not a solitary feeling to be experienced by me alone, it is a feeling that I need to share with others – it is its inclusiveness of others that multiplies the positivity of experience for oneself.


Here is my poetic contribution:



My Happiness

When I work with others
And all of us, we toil united
To make of this world
For everyone a better place,
That is when happiness is born.

When I can help to build,
Rather than raze, demolish;
When I can say a kind thing
Rather than search for bitter criticisms,
My happiness multiplies and grows.

When I can right a wrong,
Ask for forgiveness, genuinely;
And when I can make amends
Discreetly, from my heart, without effort,
That is when my happiness is most keenly felt.

When I am with you
And I make your eyes smile,
That is the moment
That will live on in my memory,
My life coloured by my happiness.

22 comments:

  1. The coloring of happiness here is totally inviting to me from its birth in stanza one, its growth in stanza two, its discreetness "from the heart" in stanza three all the way through intimacy in your concluding stanza. Bravo!

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  2. Multiple form of happiness you have painted in your poem. happiness can make a better world... can make a better person

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  3. When I am with you
    And I make your eyes smile,
    That is the moment
    That will live on in my memory,
    My life coloured by my happiness.

    Loved this stanza :D it truly brings out the emotions of happiness!
    xoxo

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  4. I think the last stanza is the crux. Giving someone joy is the ultimate happiness.The joy of receiving it is not bad either:) Lovely poem !

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  5. I agree the last verse really shines...beautifully written

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  6. Hmmm, not sure where my comment went........google ate it. I love this poem, especially "when I am with you and I make your eyes smile." The basis of true happiness lies in giving it....loved this, Nicholas.

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  7. I like your description of what makes for happiness. Happiness comes in giving, I agree.

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  8. Excellent poem and a fine intro too. I like how you start on the global scale and go down to the intimate concept of happiness in the last verse.

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  9. Love the idea of a life colored with happiness. :)

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  10. Your point is well made, Nicholas. Happiness comes in DOING something. Working together, building together, or just being together!

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  11. "And when I can make amends / Discreetly, from my heart, without effort," my favorite lines....how beautifully you've defined happiness!...also love this shift from the universal to the personal....

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  12. Giving of yourself to make life better for others. Sweet

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  13. A rousing poem-manifesto, with a surprise romantic ending...

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  14. There is so much for each of to enjoy in life and it is good to read what makes you happy too.

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  15. yes, i agree with your explication of 'happiness' as being different for everyone. being able to understand the perspective of the yin/yang of all that exists. i say a similar perspective in my piece i submitted.

    like your poem

    gracias for sharing

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  16. Nicholas, I enjoyed your narrative as well as your beautiful poem. I don't think you're too philosophical at all, just very wise. Thank you for what you bring to the world.

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  17. Nicholas,

    I concur with your thoughts about happiness; it can only be true happiness, if one gains it from interaction and sharing with others. I allude to many of those same thoughts in my own poem, alongside the gifts accepted from interacting and connecting with nature itself. I found your definition of happiness, to be most favourable...

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  18. i luv the colours you paint happiness

    much love...

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  19. Excellent poem. The ideas you have are so very true.

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  20. Happiness is definitely multiplied when we give it away :-)

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  21. So many colours to happiness...

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