How Can We Know

If we have never known pain,
how can we know
the elation joy can bring?

If we have never suffered,
how can we know
the ecstasy of happiness?

If we have never known one
we can never know
how the opposite can elate.

Life is filled with opposites;
something bad is always
countered by something good.

Knowing both then
our life becomes a whole
as we need one to counter the other.

14 February 2011

poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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