Love is ..........

A well,

A furnace,

A fountain,

An ocean,

A pile of stones,

A cake,

A candle,

A pair of baby's bootees wrapped in tissue paper,

A ring of fire,

A fence of barbed wire,

A race to the sea,

An everlasting embrace,

An invisible hand on your shoulder,

A set of recipes scribbled out for the future,

A pair of polished shoes,

Carefully ironed sheets, or shirt or trousers,

That photograph,

Music,

The way you play,

The way you listen or look,

All those dirty dishes,

Notes left in books,

A cliche,

Your heart,

A pile of kept postcards,

Kept appointments,

Some music you wrote,

A poem,

It's always a poem of sorts,

Even the broken promises

Because,

Although it certainly is not

never having to say sorry,

where there is love,

there is always an at attempt at understanding,

hope,

forgiveness,

and acceptance,

For

You have to see it's whole

through all the loops of loneliness

and anger and regret and

then return full circle

to what love really is,

Which is,

The beginning and the end of all things.





This brainstorm came about because I've been thinking about posters which were
popular in my teens, some of them broadly inspirational e.g. the one that declared " the more I know, the more I realise I don't know ",  or something along those lines, printed above or below some apparently apt image like a chimpanzee. Others were religious, like the one showing footprints in the sand with some words implying they belonged to Jesus. There was another type on the theme of  Love is...... I can't remember them exactly, but I thought they were kitsch and tacky and these last ones on love I recalled in particular recently because I've also been thinking about love and its nature. I was thinking how love is something we can imagine is a given in some places and is often taken for granted, yet, we seem to question it's authenticity alot. Love's nature defines all human activity in some way, in it's absence or presence. I believe we come from it and return to it. I dare to risk sloppy romanticism when I say, in all sincerity; if you are born, you are loved and even this doesn't cover it, because I believe the unborn are loved in some way. I dare to leave it at that, I am so sure.