the one thing

Life is everywhere around you

Sprouting forth from

Big pots and little cups

Unused helmets and broken bottles

Life leaps and bubbles from you

Struggling to get out of

Its containments

In the warmth of your embrace

Fledgelings find safety

under your mindful gaze

Ever careful, ever watchful

No one will go astray

No one will stumble

And if they do,

you will catch them

Whatever you touch 

Flourishes and glows

For you nourish it

With all the sustained energy

Of a river that flows 

Down from a mountain

And flows and flows

Into a deep lake

At the base of the hils

Every day the lake grows

Inch by inch by inch

until it is straining

Cracking here and there

Threatening to burst

And sweep away everything 

That lies beneath it

It must trickle out

In streams and rivulets

so that it doesn't explode

And then when you say

There is this one thing 

That bothers me

I know

Exactly what you mean

You have everything to give

And nowhere to put it

And invent new receptacles

Every day.....

the essence of love

When you are young you think

The essence of love is attraction

The way your heart spins

When you see someone

The way you anticipate for hours

A short meeting with your crush

And the way your mind and body

Melt after that meeting

Leaving your head spinning

Dropping objects, running into things

Unable to concentrate 

On anything else

You might be forgiven

For thinking this is love

But that is far too easy

For such a thing as love

Love is when your head 

Has stopped spinning

And maybe,

Instead of giving you

So much energy

He gives you only lethargy

And still you stay

For love is not

Leaving at the first sight of lethargy

Or anger, or disinterest

Or bitter words

Anyone can love when all is well

And it takes true love to 

Continue to make an effort

When the rose tint is gone.....

Love is peeling his skin

Bit by bit by one tiny bit

Carefully so that he doesn't

Wake up

And then putting it back together

Bit by bit

To see what exactly he is made of

To find out exactly what

Gives him so much energy

And what takes it away

What makes him smile in sleep

And what makes him jerk awake

and then doing the things

That make him smile

One at a time

It is lifelong, for love lasts

It is constant, for people change

So the skin you peeled back yesterday

For a peek inside

Will have no regrown

And the meat inside it

Will have completely renewed itself

So that every time you peel it back

It is a fresh new thing

It is arduous, for it means keeping

All the information in your head

At all times,

and accumulating more

As it occurs

It may or may not be rewarding

For despite all your efforts

There is no guarantee 

None at all

That it will work

And yet, if it truly is love

And not a passing fancy

It must be done

For evermore....

the origin of love

Maybe i had hoped that

You would love me

For who I am

And i guess that means

The romanticized idea of self

Of how talented or inteligent

Or kind or pretty I am

Or whatever it is

That you find 

attractive in me

apparently, that is not so

apparently, these things are 

Just for teenage fantasies

And love does not spring 

From these things

But the origin of love

Can only be love

An act of kindness

A reaching out

That says

You have noticed me

Why do you love me

I may ask

It is because you love me

You will say

And what if I stop loving you

I may ask

Will you stop loving me too

But I will always love you

You will say

Remembering that 

You once loved me......