Living

A friend recently reminded me that it's important to love. I think I'd forgotten that in some ways. I feel like I don't have time to love...or to enjoy my life. When I was younger, I thought if I just showed people that they were loved, their lives would change, they'd heal from their hurts. I wrote poetry about it. But that is not the case. I loved them, and they did not heal. I burned out. Perhaps now it is time to love and expect nothing in return. To love others, to love myself. And to remember to take the time for these things.
In the spirit of that, I'll post one of the poems I wrote on this topic a few years ago.

Love...

Love is too large a thing to contain.
It comes through the cracks in an overjoyed soul.
Bursts like sunlight through a curtain
On someone who thought to keep themselves distant
Safe.

No one is safe when love is involved.
There is is again at your door.
You can't keep it away.
Soon you melt in its arms.
There you go--
Melt, fall.
Till you can't stand up against it.
You don't want to.

Love is the rhythm,
The steady beat.
Stays with you,
Pulses a guide.
Love's a companion.
It stays through the night,
Heard in your sleep, like the rain.

Love never leaves.
Like the persistent rays
Of the sun stay strong through the sunset,
Love stays with you,
Warming you,
After the love-er has left the room.

Love is reversible,
And fits any size.
That's the beauty.
That's how it works.
Once you have love within you,
It bursts its way out.
Comes through the cracks in your overjoyed soul.
As you can't keep it out,
So you can't keep it in.
You leave the room,
But still it lingers...