‘Tennyson’ by Don Shook

Tennyson thought it better
“to have loved and lost, than…”
Well, you know the rest.
Of course this begs the question
most of us can only guess.
Is losing ever really good,
or is this just poetic?
I know when I have lost at love
I’ve always felt pathetic.
But when the pangs of my desires
make my insides a jumble,
I leap beyond the galaxies…
Inevitably I tumble.
For love is an illusion and a
gross exaggeration;
when viewed upon the scale of lust
it’s just imagination.
So if we never love at all
what does no effort cost?
How could we know the loss of love
if we have never lost?
But if we love and lose, no pain
could rend our teardrops wetter.
So thank you, Mr. Tennyson,
but words don’t make things better.

Don Shook, wearing the many hats of actor, director, producer and author, has award-winning scripts, television shows, and theatrical productions in his bag of credits. Formally with NBC in New York, he performed at Carnegie Hall in Tom Booth’s opera “Gentlemen In Waiting”, announced on air for WNBC, and was part of “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. He also taught music and drama at Texas A&M at Commerce, Duncanville High School, Temple Jr. College, Greenville Junior High and Brookhaven College in Dallas. Mr. Shook has written five novels, four screenplays, an acting handbook and over a dozen teleplays and wrote, directed and produced three shows, in Branson, Missouri. He has conducted Masters Acting Workshops for Stage West Theatre in Fort Worth and at The Granbury Opera Academy in Granbury, Texas. www.donshook.com/dshook3