A Lost Star Comments

This poem touches the heart, as it is meant to. There is a Hollywood film with Nicolas Cage and Cher in which she cannot commit herself to love because of past disappointments, and he gives this impassioned speech in which he declares our hearts are always broken, again and again, because they were made to be broken. Why is that so? Because we were made to feel more love than can ever be given in return. That is a sobering idea but over time I think we have to accept it. Keep this poem in a book or case somewhere so that you can find it, re-read it and be assured of the heart's resilience. It will restore you. I am finding it resonates for me as I think about some recent poems I written about long-ago relationships that failed. I - perhaps purposely - did not confront those experiences with the candor you display in A LOST STAR. I cannot say this poem is one of hope or despair. It occupies a unique place above both of those reactions. It contains both hope and despair and transcends both of them.