Stop Being Angry Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

I had to stop being angry.
And displaying bitterness,
Because of my own disappointments...
Others may have.
But I would carry mine,
On my shoulders as if...
The World weighed me down.
And I thought I should be burdened,
By collecting pieces of bricks and chips...
Thrown around me I grew tired to witness.

Too many today seem to pride themselves,
With complaints to make and fingers to point.
I began to think it was my mission and duty,
To be the one to join in to prove I could too...
Find my own life to live as an excuse to choose.

I had to stop being angry.
And displaying bitterness,
Because of my own disappointments...
Others may have.
But I would carry mine,
On my shoulders as if...
The World weighed me down.
And I thought I should be burdened,
By collecting pieces of bricks and chips...
Thrown around me I grew tired to witness.

And then it occurred to me,
When I awakened early one morning...
Before the light of dawn,
To hit my head against an open door...
That I had been doing most of my life,
With eyes I decided to keep close.
To take so much for granted.
And it took a door I ignored,
To show me to pay more attention...
To which direction I was going,
Where I was coming from...and why...
The doing of it was more important,
Than what others had chosen for themselves.
And...
With it done to do as 'their' purpose.