Love Poem No.5
Dearly beloved, as we are stretched thin
in these attenuations of time it would be
easy for you and I to look past one another
like we’ve seen it all, missing the eyes and
hands throughout our bodies like bizzy-bizzy
Americans who zip through national parks
missing the shy razzle-dazzle that anyone
with one eye and horse sense knows only shows
if you get out of the cockamamie car and walk.
So come my love, the middle of marriage need
not be in rushed, funereal tones for the grail
of the long married exists off to the side if
only you and I are woman enough and man
enough and slow enough to take it.
Only this… AMEN!
Ah, yes. Get out of the dang car. Savor a bit. Appreciate the wonder.
Beautifully said! I have to say I have loved all of the ‘Love Poems’.
Thank you John. I read this earlier this morning and needed some time to let it sink in. The reality and fragility of marriage and love makes me want to hold my breath – and that word reverence floats over my heart like a gentle caress. My marriage to the love of my life is the same age now as was my parents’ when their marriage died. It feels like a most Holy of times and places. It feels as though we have been blessed with a Friendship that only God could have provided. It feels as though we will continue to love, and yet we anticipate that love changes, in ways we cannot forecast. Ann Voskamp says it so well in her book “One Thousand Gifts”: ” . . . life is so urgent that it necessitates living slow . . . in Christ, the most urgent necessitates a slow and steady reverence”. I think I might say that marriage and love are so sacred that they ask us to slow down enough to allow the love the penetrate every aspect of our souls. I think it’s a challenge worth the effort.
I hope I haven’t crossed a line in writing so much here today. I apologize if I have. I really just want you to know that your gift is a gift to me – and sometimes “Thank you” doesn’t feel like enough.
Thank you, anyway!
Yes! . . .
Wow. Beautiful.
[…] just discovered this blogger this week, and I was surprised and impressed at his love poems–they’re quite […]
Oh, man, so good! We’re rounding the corner to 10 years and this feels suddenly apropos. Thanks John.
Beautiful. And so true about slowing. Down and getting out of the car! What a great metaphor for life.
[…] just discovered this blogger this week, and I was surprised and impressed at his love poems–they’re quite […]