There is around the spreading joy of love
A decided edge of sadness – a darker color –
Sharp at first and then a seeping, the mess
Of an ill executed watercolor
Where lack of faultless timing or patience
Turns the technique of wash and counter wash
To chaos.

Art is not supposed to be chaotic
But works with elements of chaos
To clarify where life cannot.
Tragedy and comedy function side by side
Or layer on layer, but with a  structure
Not readily apparent in life since

Zones of loving life perilously close
To zones of hating in the brain

And a laboratory tickle or an unrequited love
May run pain into pleasure, pleasure into pain.

Jane Colville Betts (1931-2016) taught English at UW-Eau Claire for twenty years before retiring in 1996. Jane wrote and welcomed opportunities to share her poetry throughout her life. "The Beautiful Things of Life Keep Blurring With the Sad" is reprinted here with permission. It originally appeared in Birth and Death and In Between (North Star Press, 2007).

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