The tag line for my blog could also be my life’s theme:
Solid joys, deep sorrows, aggressive hope.
Last year a persistent, present grief pressed down my heart. I knew, though, that I couldn’t abandon joy. Grief would need to make room for a roommate: joy was moving in. They would have to cohabit.
I remembered that metaphor as I read this line from an early C.S. Lewis poem:
Be as the Living ones that know
Enormous joy, enormous woe.
The poems are in Spirits in Bondage, a collection of 40 poems written by Lewis between the ages of 16 and 19.
A Living Pencil 
Thank you so much for sharing that! I, too, have been pressing on to joy in the midst of grief. I am so thankful for your example to me.
There is a time to weep; you are there. ((hugs))
Seems almost impossible that joy and grief can cohabit. Maybe because we can’t recognize the greatness of one without the immensity of the other? If that is an example of early C.S. Lewis poems, I want to read more.
My review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30037805-spirits-in-bondage
Alan Jacobs calls it mediocre and derivative poetry. Some I liked; some I didn’t.
It’s interesting that he had an “inkling” of this reality and of “Living ones” long before his full conversion.
Yes, indeed!
This is important; I need to chew on it. Thanks.
Hugs xx
You’re welcome! Hugs back!
I understand what it is to experience great happiness only to be slammed with deep sadness just seconds later. So many outside influences are out of our control! The Serenity Prayer helps me cope. Lewis had amazing, deep reflections didn’t he? Love his mind!
I get that. Emotions are slippery things. I struggled with the book of poetry, Spirits in Bondage, but I’m glad I read it.