The Answer to is it better to have loved and lost

It has been asked, often with bitterness or curiosity.
Is it better to have loved and lost, then to have never loved at all? The answer, like life, depends on your perspective.

If you've tasted of love, what it can be, the highs and lows  and knowing of a taste of eternity...

If you've never opened yourself to take the chance, or been hurt and cut off the possibility...

To have loved and lost leaves an ache, much like the taste of something not able to be re-obtained. The attempts, like cheap knockoffs and artificial flavors that don't quite sustain...

To never know the sweeter taste, you'll never know the hunger pangs.
The calling of that which you cannot obtain.
You can see the picture, dream the dream, but are free to live without hungering...

Does this mean it is better to have never loved?
Far be it from me!

For to have known something so sweet, even if it haunts me, I can have hope to taste of it again, in a new reality. To never have known is also a blessing, for in the lack of knowing there is a freedom to be had. This is why the question rings, for the perspective of the asked will determine the bitter or the sweet.

Either look to the good or look to the lack, both have merit and both hold aches for the what-ifs and what-could-be, but truly, isn't this life in it's entirety?