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Love

Men and women cannot exist in isolation,
For much like valley giving rise to mountain,
The nature of one makes necessary the other
When they’re joined in love, there’s wholeness again.

To find yourself, lose yourself in another;
For s/he will touch your being and therein share,
Gently unveiling your heart, soul, mind, and sense
Till there’s no place to hide! You’re found, forever!

If love were easy to find, have, or say,
Then its meaning’s worth would soon fly away;
But from steady effort love grows to lead
Yearning to fulfillment—and there to stay.

Love is the mutual creation of identity.
To be in love is NOT a loss of independence,
But rather a shared identity with the lover
That does not destroy the identity of the other.

Love is GIVING without gain in return;
TAKING is selfish—will you never learn?
Graciously accept all that you receive,
And give kindness to everyone in turn.

Love matures when lovers let it flow beyond—
Free to wend its way to places dear and fond.
Love’s butterfly prospers when winds blow free;
Unconditional love never binds—it bonds.

Freely given love returns on the wing,
But if you KEEP your love you’ll have nothing;
It’s a most wonderful paradox—
GIVE your love and you will have everything.

Arithmetic theory fails in love’s plot:
Love when divided diminishes not,
As would else we know, and vanishes not
Each love multiplies to exceed the lot!

The capacity for love is boundless
No piece for us and fraction for the rest.
Since the sum of love’s parts exceeds the whole,
We can give and give love, never-the-less!

Poets translate what’s within and above,
To exhibit truths from depths unheard of.
There’s one deep truth that I know to be true;
I’ll tell you too: The truth of truths is LOVE.

The meaning of love is in its GIVING
When there’s no motive towards obtaining;
TAKING is the opposite of giving!
Caring? Sharing?they’re reasons for loving.

Of a love-sweet companion take your sup,
While s/he as your chalice is lifted up.
Drink deep the wine that satisfies love’s thirst;
Drink up—before winds of change dry the cup.

To your lovers all your kisses bestow
When life’s colors glow in your rainbow;
For as long as love’s kisses can live,
Neither age nor time on your life will show.

LOVING is what this life is all about
To give and have it is to live all-out!
Love’s the finest thing! Can you do without?
Then, why, oh why do you not seek it out?

Small town summer, picket fence, grandmothers
Playing cards on the front porch—Hearts lovers;
Country girl brings cookies, rhythm flutters;
Smiling, all approve of what love discovers.

As I wandered along the romantic way
With one who would drink life’s sadness away,
I realized that the cost of a loveless life
Was much too high of a price for me to pay.

We sent out emanations of love fair
That were sweet, soft, and smiling on the air,
A scented mist of liquid love that filled
The scene with its well-being everywhere.

You are the elixir that fills my cup,
The perfume on the breeze that lifts me up
You’re love’s essence distilled into being,
The passion-spirit that opens me up.

Driven not by desperation or pain,
But purely by love alone, I sustain
Affection through the goodness of giving,
For true love’s but pure love preordained.

A mutual self we form, one both friend and lover,
Touching soul-to-soul by language we discover,
Opening each other up to connect our selves
Now we TWO total more than ONE plus ONE other.

Initial fusion requires heat and excitement.
A steady flame then insures passion’s maintainment
And continues the honeymoon’s enchantment
By sustaining a reaction that’s permanent.

Beautiful sentiments call attention
Style/substance = emotion/motion.
Gather sentiments, place them on the scale
They weigh much less than one lovely action!

I’m painting a picture for you to see
The vision of romantic destiny.
Like ghosts, we emerge from the photo film,
Virtually into reality.

Speak freely to me—let me hear your song,
For what you know and feel cannot be wrong;
It is genuine because it is yours.
Such intimacy does our friendship prolong.

Flowers grow from their many roots, upcast
Some have passed, some are steadfast. The contrast:
Those which grow much too quickly, wither fast;
Those which grow steadily and slowly, last.

In the soil that we shared, these plants we chose
Truth: tulip, goodness: lily, beauty: rose.
Nurtured with life’s care, they wave to and fro;
Storms can’t scatter the flowers that love grows.

I’ve never, in either life or dream, found
Anyone as alive as you—you, who ’round
Me as a living presence glows and gives
Me youth, life, love, and a spirit newfound.

We rose higher and higher, past cloud nine,
Through seventh Heaven, to a golden shrine
Of Love where few have ever entwined,
For we let love build but never decline.

Senses melt away, drip by drop by drip.
Impressions flood the speechless spirit.
Emotions flow free for the heart to read.
Love has drawn me in—I’m dissolved in it.

Your spirit calls, steam risen from the rain,
A missing so sweet that it’s almost pain;
The future’s heavy, swelling with promise
Of the season when love can breath again.

I never knew that love could be like this,
A wonderland of peace, joy, and bliss.
No, I’d never known where I’d never been,
That such a world could be found in a kiss.

Together we sing in a fugal voice;
For we live in two-part harmonic choice:
We’re opposite twins in love, a canon
Chime in which we in unison rejoice.

Like voices merged in the Canon Pachelbel,
We speak as one, as the knell to the bell,
S/he saying what I thought and vice-versa,
In tune, in unison, yet parallel.

Fugal voices blended, parted, and long
Wove in and out, the music sweeping strong,
And onward, upward, inward, and outward
Till being was left to the spirit’s song.

As I love and am loved in completeness,
Then this world, with all of its foolishness,
Work, hurry and scurry, pain and worry,
Does fast fade away into nothingness.

Cares floated out on the tide, and then some;
Sun-sparkles glimmered, danced, and swum,
Alighting on my mind, there, to become
Ideas about the loving night to come.

Your partner’s heart beats dear against thy own
Where you’re safe, warm, and completely at home.
Surrounding the blossom of your flower,
S/he enrapts you like the words of a poem.

Thy heart touches my own; no, ’tis more I love thee!
Yes, much more art thou loved, the ’me’ is now in thee.
Thou art the soul of my soul and mine is of thine;
Nay, ’tis more than that: thou art me and I am thee!

Can I ever fathom the source of love?
Perhaps its fount springs from Heaven above?
Just this I know: Love’s rhythm resonates
Beneath words and thoughts, in depths unheard of.

I am immersed in love’s boundless dream,
Floating in peace on beauty’s quiet stream.
Truth is now clearly seen, so bright and right
Purity’s goodness swells each sparkling gleam.

With sparks from passion’s smoldering embers,
We ignite from all that love remembers,
And steam through emotion’s ocean in our
Relation Ship—of which we’re crew members.

There on some remoter shore of human soul
To which I helped restore life and spirit,
I learned that love was the only flame that lit
This life—for she had taught me how to give it.

Awash on a love-made shore, we overcame
Our senses, leaving them behind, unclaimed
As we floated free, quenched in sunset sea,
Basking in reflections of the scarlet flame.

When the sun burns up, and long after
The Earth grows cold from that disaster,
When galaxies die and rotate no more,
Then what remains is our love thereafter.

In love relationships, not only banish
Criticism, nagging, name calling, anger,
Punishments, and yelling, but replace it
With encouragement, support, and caring.