To fully appreciate joy, one must experience its opposite. Your poem depicts much of that, which has been percolating in my mind for what will eventually, unless best-laid plans of Marcus Mouse melt away, be a response to your recent professorial poetry prompt. The first thing that came to mind when reading the prompt was the first time someone introduced me to the concept that I later learned has the name, soul contract (I have given it other names--improv script and recently, incarnation itinerary):

"Meredith’s conception of God, or the Great All (the moniker that resonates with her), and how we and our souls fit in, is that when our souls leave the Great All to become human we contract with the universe to experience certain painful things on Earth that are not spiritual so we can learn what is spiritual (love, kindness, compassion, charity, etc.)."

I sometimes use comments as my notes/personal sounding board/outline for poems/essays.