Peggy Landsman

Repetition Is the Mother of Learning

Sometimes I doubt the depth of pain I suffer.
Sometimes I’m sure I must be growing numb.
Is there no useful fiction for a buffer?
I’m dreading what will be worse pain to come.
Reality is harsh. Since time began,
life’s far too short for what it has to teach us.
I’ve lived just long enough to understand
that truths we won’t embrace will never reach us.
But feelings that are hurt will not forget
whatever cruelty caused their injury.
Of all the honest feelings I have met,
not one has learned to live with fantasy.
My feelings stem from facts I can't deny;
I think, therefore I am about to cry.



Peggy Landsman lives in South Florida where she swims in the warm Atlantic Ocean every chance she gets. Her most recent poetry chapbook is Our Words, Our Worlds (Kelsay Books, 2021). Her full-length poetry collection, Too Much World, Not Enough Chocolate, is forthcoming from Nightingale & Sparrow Press. peggylandsman.wordpress.com