Love is a Place

William B. Hoyt

love is a place

 
love is a place

& through this place of 

love move

(with brightness of peace)

all places

yes is a world

& in this world of 

yes live

(skilfully curled)

all worlds

e.e. cummings

I spent a good amount of time hunting down an image for this. The first that came to mind was one I already used for “Let Love Go On”, and I considered using it again – why not? If the image happens to suit two (or more) poems, why hesitate using it for both? (A happy thought in itself, that a painting fits many poems, or vice versa. I could do a series of poems like that here one day.)  But, the poem ! As far as love poems go, this is one of the greatest, in my opinion.  Is there a more clear and beautiful way to speak of the universality of love, and of love as the Great Positive, the all-encompasser, the Great Embrace, the birthplace of life, the Source, the Fullness, the Everywhere-Home, the Center of Being/Belonging…and on and on and on? That line, “in this world of yes live (skilfully curled) all worlds” is like saying “everything good is indeed possible!”  If “love” and “yes” are linked – well! What do you make of that?!! (What does that mean for the world? For life? For you and me?) Cummings repeats this theme throughout his poetry, and it gets me every time.He does it in "i thank you God for most this amazing", and although he doesn't use the word "Yes" in "i am a little church" the sense of the Great Positive, of things coming right, is certainly there - "around me surges a miracle of unceasing/ birth and glory and death and resurrection:/ over my sleeping self float flaming symbols/  of hope". I've mentioned before how I was once told that hate and pain are more difficult to write about than love, and that in time I came to see that the opposite is true, that love is far more exacting, far far more arduous to write well about, having been so maligned and misrepresented, spun and perverted, that we hardly recognize it, nevermind speak with truth or accuracy in regard to it. So I cannot say enough in appreciation for what e.e. cummings does here. This is what I would call and Open Door poem, a poem that leads to so many possibilities, so many ideas - or a Tree of Life poem, with a thousand limbs and branches and leaves. Not to mention, it reminds me of this verse -

"For all the promises of God in Him {Jesus} are Yes and in Him, Amen, to the glory of God through us." 2 Corinthians 1:20.  

 

For You

Andrew Wyeth

	For You The peace of great doors be for you. Wait at the knobs, at the panel oblongs. Wait for the great hinges. The peace of great churches be for you. Where the players of loft pipe organs Practice old lovely fragments, alone. The peace of great books be for you, Stains of pressed clover leaves on pages, Bleach of the light of years held in leather. The peace of great prairies be for you. Listen among windplayers in cornfields, The wind learning over its oldest music. The peace of great seas be for you. Wait on a hook of land, a rock footing For you, wait in the salt wash. The peace of great mountains be for you, The sleep and the eyesight of eagles, Sheet mist shadows and the long look across. The peace of great hearts be for you, Valves of the blood of the sun, Pumps of the strongest wants we cry. The peace of great silhouettes be for you, Shadow dancers alive in your blood now, Alive and crying, “Let us out, let us out.” The peace of great changes be for you. Whisper, Oh beginners in the hills. Tumble, Oh cubs –tomorrow belongs to you. The peace of great loves be for you, Rain, soak these roots; wind, shatter the dry rot. Bars of sunlight, grips of the earth, hug these. The peace of great ghosts be for you, Phantoms of night-gray eyes, ready to go To the fog-star dumps, to the fire-white doors. Yes, the peace of great phantoms be for you, Phantom iron men, mothers of bronze, Keepers of the lean clean breeds. Carl Sandburg From Carl Sandburg to all of us embarking on the open door of 2019. The peace of old and new, and new appreciation of old. Old books, old places, old earth, old landscapes and seascapes, old horizons, old journeys – may they all be new to us. May we begin and begin and begin again. Each day a new moment. Happy New Year!