In honor of my friend who's fallen in love

"Love is the most difficult and dangerous form of courage. Courage is the most desperate, admirable, and noble kind of love."
--Delmore Schwartz

"Love is a choice you make from moment to moment."
--Barabara De Angelis

"To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage."
--Lao Tzu

"True love isn't so much a dreamy feeling that you have as it is an enduring commitment to give sacrificially--even, or perhaps especially, when you don't feel like it."
--William R. Mattox, Jr.

"You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back."
--Barabara De Angelis

"To love at all is to be vulnerable."
--C. S. Lewis

proof of God's love

"While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly. Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die. But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us. Therefore, since we are now justified (acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ's blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin's dominion) through His [resurrection] life." --Romans 5:6-10

skimming the top of the world (written 03.07.1995)

(for Michael)

The river called to me
As you and I sat wordlessly on the hot sand
One toe at a time
We sank into the water
(skin popping out with cold)
splash-cooling the hot vinyl seat
we mounted
(suddenly awake)
we flew across the surface…
your hair whipped glossy black at my nose
I held on behind you

Fast at first—fueled by new freedom—wind pounding our face
When we realized we had all the time in the world
We let the motor rest and it began to purr
Then I saw you
And I held on tight
I felt it coming

You flashed me a boyish grin
And I held on
Knowing if I let go I’d be without you
(and in trouble)
gliding along the gray-green surface

so deep we couldn’t see the bottom

you began to risk it all and I did too
(it was either that or let go)
we fell off pretty hard once
gasping in cold water
fighting the strong current
but soon we were back up
laughing
cooled by the plunge

I clung to you
And we left river-weeds at the banks,
Speeding over submerged rocks
We made a game of hitting waves
Balanced Together we could fly!
I looked back once and saw a trail of playful foam behind us…

We have never seen the shore since

blades (one of my old poems)

Imprisoned,
My Love lies dormant
As in wait
For the warmth of the spring thaw.

Winter renders emotions motionless
Huddled hopefully in my hungry heart
The eyes of Patience are sealed open
Scrutinizing the cold white snow
For the inevitable protrusion of a warm green
Blade.

from love alone

"Should I worship Him from fear of hell, may I be cast into it. Should I serve Him from desire of gaining heaven, may He keep me out. But should I worship Him from love alone, may He reveal Himself to me, that my whole heart may be filled with His love and presence."

--Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929), Meditations on Various Aspects of the Spiritual Life

cork

(A poem inspired by a cork I found.)

Her dusty soul-cellar
Houses bottled memories
Like aging grapes
Trampled into wine
Corked and hidden deep in the dark.

The fruit of youth ripened long ago
And was crushed beneath the feet of life

Her thirst would quench
If she’d pop the cork and drink deep

But she’s swept the cellar clean
And whisked the cobwebs into dust.
Ascending to the brighter world upstairs,
She paints a smile

While all the while
The grapes
(And her heart)
Are aging.

foreshadow

Romance leaks from my veins and seeps
Through my pen onto the page

Encouraged by frosted loneliness
To chant about the future

Of desire consumed and empty spaces
occupied