Do You Have Problems?

Question

With kind hearts we listen to mans woes

for we know that men have many.

And if we tried to solve them all

pretty soon men would not have any.

All of our woes will give us strengths

as we solve them little by little.

The big ones will all soon disappear

what is left we give neither jot nor tittle.

Most have ten bottles standing on a wall

and we wander how to get rid of them.

But we find a way as we always do,

and by and by there are fewer than ten.

Problems are all there for us to solve

so let us turn them all to challenges.

And one by one with the help of a friend

we can say "I am the one who manages".

We wonder what all the fuss was about

as we sit down and shake our head.

Looking at life through a new pair of eyes

wondering why we wished we were dead.

None are as big as we make them to be

someone is always worse off than us.

As we have been there and come out fine

we say "Come on lad lets 'ave not fuss".

With understanding we take them aside,

sit them down; asking questions so subtle.

We will listen with kind sympathetic ear

until their problems are down to one bottle.

Problems, what problems you want to know,

why now they were all turned to challenges.

We took the bottles down one by one

and replaced them with vases of successes.

Answer 1

10 bottles is an interesting metaphor for accumulated problems.  An enjoyable read as you said needs some tuning.  The lines that did not seem to fit as well when I read aloud were: S2L2, S3L4 and S8L4.  It should not take much for your talent to 'tune' them right!

Answer 2

I love the bottle metaphor and especially the last two lines summing up a life. Those lines portray satisfaction with a life well-lived, a refreshing turn in the face of all the angst spewed on this site.

Answer 3

The timing is trivial...call it freestyle.

It is reminiscent of "Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse.

Suffering is inherint to man, and if man can find a moment of happiness, then he is blessed.  Man is a cruel animal.

Good thoughts.