[ML'Amour]

Love Is

When love beckons you follow her
Though her ways are hard & steep
And when her wings enfold you yield to her
Though the sword hidden among her pinions may wound you
And when she speaks to you believe in her
Though her voice may shatter your dreams as the North wind lays waste the garden
For even as love crowns you so does she crucify you
Even as she is for your growth so is she for your pruning
Even as she ascends to your heights and caresses your most tender branches that quiver in the sun
So shall she descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth
Like sheaves of corn she gathers you unto herself
She threshes you to make you naked
She sifts you to free you from your husks
She grinds you to whiteness
She kneads you until you are pliant
And then she assigns you to her sacred fire
That you may become sacred bread
In God’s sacred feast
All of these things shall love do unto you
That you may know the secrets of your heart and in that knowledge become a fragment of life’s heart
But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace only love’s pleasure
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing floor
Into the seasonless world
Where you shall laugh but not all of your laughter
Where you shall weep but not all of your tears
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed
For love is sufficient unto love
But if you love and must need desires
Let these be your desires –
To melt and be like a running brook that sings it’s melody to the night
To know the pain of too much tenderness
To be wounded by your own understanding of love and to bleed willingly; joyfully
To wake at dawn, with winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving
To rest at the noon hour and meditate loves ecstasy
To return home at eventide with gratitude
And then,
To sleep with a prayer
For the beloved in your heart
And a song of praise upon your lips


Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet