Paul Georgiou
Never a word so much abused as love
Never a word so much abused as love.
“I am afraid, so stay and share my fear”
a common usage it is clear,
which can be heard in whispers everywhere.
Another meaning, and perhaps
the commonest, is “I give up my dreams,
forget my bold ambition and my hopes,
and, in despair, accept what seems
not best but tolerable.”
Another sense, and these are not
exclusive definitions of the word,
is “You have what I want,
yes, you are what
I need; and hence
to satisfy the want and need in me,
you, I will take”.
Strange as it may seem to be
this taking is called love.
There is, of course, another way that love
is meant; rarer in use, in practice rarer still.
Its core is giving and its heart is this;
“I feel myself in you; therefore I will
share and dissolve your fears; all that you dream
with you I wish to build, for in such building
we will find
whatever is the best in you and me
and all mankind.
My sole desire shall be
not what I want or need but how I may
enrich for you the progress of each day.”
The rabble of events and life’s exigencies
conspire against love of this kind.
But it may be, and who can say,
if you and I are of a mind
and have the will to bind and stay,
together we may find a way.