Composed 4/21/14
Description: (Day 21 of NaPoWriMo) Today’s poem was inspired by the Weekly Word Challenge on Susie81 Speaks. The theme was “Happy,” and, though we could write anything revolving around the theme, a suggestion that caught my attention was “write a ‘how to’ guide on how to be happy.”
This comes at a time when I am working on a statistics project in which one of the variables is happiness. Specifically, I am doing some research over whether volunteering is associated with/can lead to happiness. And, thus, this poem came to be.
I ambitiously tried a combined original and “reverse” acrostic. (The first letters spell “happiness is” the last letters, “reaching out.”) It definitely presented some challenges, but I liked the way it came out.
In your experience has giving to others brought you happiness?
How to be happier
A subject in which we popularly engage
Persistently results in a
Powerful longing for a future that deviates from chronic
Isolation and poverty – hated thirsts to quench
Needlessly these desires tempt us like the wishes of a djinni
Ending in disappointment when
Superior joy stems from giving
Simply stroking the heart of one who
Is in need of love may touch you
Surrounding you in the peace of knowing your energy was valuably put
Scraps of Paper 