It is not raining in my mind today, I switched it off,
If only! 
It is not that it makes me feel wet it is the cold
That makes me look upon the rain as an adversary.

I have sat in many dusty old halls with cardboard people
Who never return a smile when I smile at them, 
Why don’t they? Is it because they’re feeling too unwell?
Probably!

For my own sake I stay away from large halls like these
And places where there are people dressed in sadness.
In halls great and small 
I’ve been involved in conversations about karma effect.

One day someone at the back of the room who arrived late
Objected to the idea of allowing themselves to be abused
For the sake of their karma – he was very loud too!
He pointed at the heads of the people in the room.
 
“Will their karmas be improved by taking abuse this way?”
No one answered. There was an embarrassed silence now.
The man surmised that what he had said may be getting through,
Who knows?

What the people had failed to notice was the Angel with him,
For most people the Angel was invisible – but some could see.
They were amazed by the Light and they listened carefully.
“There are some among you who want their karma to grow
Through doing good – over coming great obstacles, you know.

There are those of you who suffer abuse and hurt by another!
Who’s to say by what course does a person’s karma glow?”
The Angel posited the question "is there some kind of universal
Law governing all aspects of one’s own psyche we all know?"
No one spoke!

The silence was eventually broken by coughing and shuffling.
At last a small voice rose from the front row a fresh faced woman,
She spoke of her Karma being nourished by all kinds 
Of experiences – some of which she had learned the hard way

Some of which she was lucky enough to be given Light!
She spoke about her friend who lived in the depths of anguish. 
She said it was as if her friend took the abuse to be punished,
But could not recall why she was to be cruelly admonished.

The Angel turned to this woman and said steadily,
“It is your Karma that you should see your friend abused –
But the conundrum is that your friend’s karma is diminished!”
The lady in the front row burst into tears and cried aloud 

 “But why does she apparently allow herself to be abused?”
To which the other people around her started murmuring.
The Angel went to the front of the rows before them and said,
“Only your friend knows the answer to that difficult question.

Only they can say why they stand in the crossfire of pain.
No one can see into this person’s mind or know the feeling
That comes from feeling unworthy, it is necessary this thing
Should be taken away from your friend” indicated the Angel

As she knelt down and embraced the sobbing front row woman.
Agitated conversations now spread all around the hall.
People were asking questions, not at all feeling small
 – looking for answers, and receiving them after all.

One man several rows back suddenly stood noisily
His chair fell and skated across the floor quickly.
“But what of the abuser? Where is their karma in this?”
“clearly the person is likely to be deranged or sick,
Do they avoid the justice meted out so very quick.

To those who transgress decency honour and respect?”
The Angel rose from the floor and stretched out their arms
“It is a good question” they returned, “but what harms
Would follow by applying justice to someone who is mad?”
The agitations now ceased and silence now was to be had.

The woman in the front row stood up and looked at the man
She said “Do you think it is my job to interfere or stand
Back and watch my friend be reduced to sorrow and tears?”
The man felt cast down and a lump was in his throat,
He stood still and concentrated on her words and about
Why she’d said that to him at this time and this place.
 

Note - this is a stronger poem, the title was inspired by the name of Capt Beefheart's second album Strictly Personal - it is interesting how I used the idea of an Angel conversing with a hall of people exploring the concept of Karma.