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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Clemency

Forgiveness by hanoo @ deviantART


The pardon for his crimes
Was granted years ago,
Those sins of cruelty
Tossed into memory’s abyss.

As for finding
Personal absolution
For transgressions
against myself…

That day may never come.


~~~~ This poem was inspired by a prompt from Poetry Jam asking for poems about forgiveness.

13 comments:

Mary said...

Mary, I hear you in this (I think). A legal decision is one thing, but to those who were affected personally absolution is not crystal clear. Black and white legally is not black and white when it comes to the lives of individual human beings!

Grace said...

Nice reflections on forgiveness ~ Peace comes when we heal ourselves, and not from an external source ~

The Unknowngnome said...

Forgetting and forgiving.....so true, "that day may never come".

Thanks Mary for stopping by and commenting. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh. Took my breath. Ambushed by the end. Had to read it twice.

Excellent.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Powerfully written, Mary. Some things are much harder to forgive.

Helen said...

Clemency ~ the title of your poem gave me pause, a chance to think about what it really means. I like what you did with the prompt, Mary.

Laurie Kolp said...

Forgiveness can be difficult, that's for sure!

Brian Miller said...

true...often times forgiving ourselves is the hardest part...and we carry that ghost til we join it...

Susan said...

I love how the poetic form you chose made you pare down to a few essentials. The problems around forgiveness, especially of self, draw us into silence.

Anonymous said...

yes, there are different tiers, aren't there? & I know outside clemency granted can feel like a right smack in the face of the victim, whose life has been altered, perhaps beyond repair, by the perpetrator of the crime...

thought-provoking

Peggy said...

Ah yes, pardon and absolution are two very different things. Sorry to be getting to commenting so late. I was away for most of the week without access to the blog part of the Internet. I am loving coming back to these wonderful reads on forgiveness.

my heart's love songs said...

i think most of us realize that to forgive is to let go of the poison we become filled with from anger and resentment held within... the problem is managing to do the forgiving!

wonerfully written, Mary!

Margaret said...

Ah, yes. This is excellent! Free to go, but are we totally free from our own guilt?