The Irony of Life

 

 

It takes sadness to know happiness

Noise to appreciate silence,

Unfaithfulness to esteem faithfulness

And absence to value presence.

 

If there were no darkness

The stars could never shine,

No night time to follow day time

Life would become a grind.

 

How would you know you’re up

If there was no down

How could you tell the difference

Between a smile and a frown?

 

How would any one return

If no one could ever leaves?

How would you explain the concept please

If there was no displease?

 

The long and short of this

Should be clear for all to see

Since it takes all to conceptualize none

Just like to be or not to be.

 

 

Life is defined by its opposites

And their related tensions

And the necessity to strike a balance

Is worthy of a mention.

 

Much of life is a continuum

And therein lies its irony,

A pass today could be a fail tomorrow

Depending on the difficulty.

 

When there are difficult times

Any upward movement is satisfactory,

However, when the reverse obtains

That same progress will never be.

 

A businessman measures his success

By his profit the previous year,

If a smaller profit is made the next year

Then a loss would be declared.

 

 

In actual fact it is not a loss

But only a smaller gain,

Since it is less than the previous year

On the books it becomes a stain.

 

Every one of today’s joys

Is stained with tomorrow's sorrow

Though there is naught of tomorrow

That a man may borrow.

 

Tomorrow does not exist

Yet it preoccupies us today

To worry and fret about its unreality

Is our abnormally normal way.

 

In the midst of life

We are invaded by death

And in its injudicious onslaught

It robs us of our best.

 

We see the irony of life

Displayed in so many ways

Where often the goal posts oft are shifted

Especially in these COVID days.

 

To understand this irony better

Note the following expressions

That arise so very often

In our day to day conversations.

 

 

It was awfully nice of you

To acknowledge my fine mess,

I trust you are not seriously confused

And wish you all the best.

 

I would be terribly pleased

If you could give me your unbiased opinion

On what I considered to be

A most typically weird poem.

 

Seriously funny, not so?

But such is the irony of life,

Note we have only one original copy

A minor crisis, O what strife!

 

That is the only choice

For you to choose between

Which I guess was openly deceptive

Displaying a pretty ugly scene.

 

Would I write a poem like this again?

That is a definite maybe

For all those who clearly misunderstood

Unlike you and me.

 

Parting is such sweet sorrow

But I am voluntarily forced to go,

A wise fool may be unconsciously aware

But only a wise fool would know.

 

Stewart Russell © April 8, 2021