I am moved by…
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
T. S. Eliot
Winter has descended into
our company like an ornery guest
who will share no hospitality
but just piles snow and more snow,
and spreads sheer cold over our bodies
and souls. Shivering outside and inside,
I write you a letter to feel your warmth
I use the word “love” three times,
twice on page two and once on page four.
For me all of it is just words on paper.
Forgive me, I did not realize the vibrancy
of your heart would be so touched, so aroused.
The first time you read the word “love”
on page two, your sleeping heart awoke and
spread sweetness and light throughout your being,
and things dark and harsh within became radiant.
The second time your eyes encountered the same word
on the same page, you rejoiced to see “love” in flight,
circling in freedom, but staying close to its home –
a gesture of hope, an act of kindness, a blessing.
You paused. You asked me why I was so unmoved, but
I was heavy with wonder, and I was as still as a tree
drinking in an excess of light. You smiled, and it was
another of light that nourished my inner being…
Then you read the final “love” on page four and
declared it was “agape” love that immediately,
at the speed of light, circled the globe with
radiance that outshone briefly the dawn’s brilliance.
And then it was over: we stood together, amazed
but content, in the afterglow of a shared vision.
And we simply accepted the common light
of an ordinary day….
(This poem is a response to a beautiful but bitter-sweet poem by
Nosheen Irfan, “We vowed to stay together….”)
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