Oh, constant, unending pain, my surest, truest friend
Agony, blessed agony, your ever-present ache identifies unyielding vitality
That sharply labored breath is respiration fully experienced
Those overwhelming burdens grant me immune to senseless distraction
Grounding me in the present

Oh, merciless teacher
Spread your harshest wounds across the soil of my figure
Find root in my skin and nerves and veins
Killing fields to blanket
And smother withering pleasure that waxes and wanes
Thine are the lidless eyes of night that stare upon my tears
Thine is the thickness of the dark that presses in my anguish
Rejoice in the miseries of life unkind

Here, and only here, are the senses stretched and contracted
Hone them to their prime strength, to primal vigor
Seek comfort in endurance
Be consumed by struggle
Lasting wisdom only exists in the abandoned fields
In the dusty swamp, on the burnt out plains, on the desolate hillside