Emily Dickinson on pain

Pain—has an Element of Blank—
It cannot recollect
When it begun—or if there were
A time when it was not—

It has no Future—but itself—
Its Infinite Contain
Its Past—enlightened to perceive
New Periods—of Pain.

In this little poem, Emily Dickinson has captured one of the insidious features of chronic pain – the way it makes you forget what it was like to live without pain.