The Poetry Marathon

2023 #10 What Is Love?

Such a broad question.
Should it be though?
Do people’s concept of love vary
so much that there isn’t one definition?

Universal ideals and thoughts.
Even a list of words to describe it.

Love is dependent on the individuals involved.
Parent towards a child.
The child for their parents.

The intimate love between two people.
Versus the love between two friends.
Or the love of something that does not love back.
An object of some significance.
Love of a pet and the pets “love” back.

The depth of love varies,
even among the various types.
One couples love of each other,
differs from the next.

The one thing love always is,
the immense pain it can cause
when it is broken.

Heartache and raw emotion from its loss.
Is that why we often
“don’t know what we have, until it’s gone”?

We don’t cherish it like we should,
when it’s around?

Love is great,
until it’s not.

Hour Ten: What is Love

It doesn’t matter

What is love

It matters why and who

And how you love

 

 

Love is nebulous,

A fuzzy nargle

Refusing to be defined,

Shifting itself into a shape to fit

Each imagining

 

 

Better to ask

How long, how much, how deep, how come

And not expect answers

Yet you keep wanting to know the unknowable —

What is love and —

It does not matter

Beyond Family

Beyond Family

 

Family is now a generic term.

Family is a wide-open umbrella.

Blood or not blood.

This is how most of the world sees family.

 

The indigenous tribes

see family everywhere.

That is why we call the Earth, Mother.

 

A mother is supposed to nurture,

support, and empower us.

 

Mother Nature,

Gaia,

Unci Maka

Ni Mama Akii

Mother Earth.

 

Her warmth comes from her inner core

and radiated with her trees

that help us breathe easier.

She whispers advice through the wind,

telling us to take it slow.

 

Father sky,

warms us with his sunbeams,

Sending messages with clouds

by saying to let the inner child

come out and play once in a while,

as the rain comes down

to wash away our negative thoughts.

 

For us family is just a word.

We have a community of elders

willing to teach by song and dance.

Aunts and Uncles who take stress

away by making us laugh.

Brothers and sisters

to back us up when were cornered by life.

 

They don’t need to be by blood.

Clans are what tie us together.

As long as you know

your birthplace,

clans

and tribe.

You’ll have family everywhere.

 

 

Hour 10: Trying

Trying

“The people I love best are the ones who try” – Nancy Pagh, Trying

Perhaps this is my folly: to never try
enough. To let love happen to me as the wind
happens to fall leaves, floating until I am
brought indelibly to the damp soil,
waiting to disintegrate and get consumed
by worms. And yes, knowing now that trying
is a risk, I often cower in place, deep in the
safety of a well protected branch, grateful
to stay hidden in the safety of a storm.
Though, winter as it is, and pain, I wonder
if you’ll see me, finally, inevitably try,
risking disintegration. Letting go.
Wondering at what my father taught me,
has yet to teach, even if the world does
not love us, even love is, after all, just dust.

Pollinators

Through the open window,

a bright ray

poised on the precipice

of my brow,

hair by hair,

glides to an eyelash.

It trembles, flutters.

A groan, a sigh,

I sit up, rise out of bed.

 

The garden wakes

to full sun.

Bearded iris sit in dry air

5280 feet above the sea.

Yellow standards thrust high,

jostle each other like yellow umbrellas

over purple falls.

Fuzzy yellow beards offer bees

a landing, an invite to gorge on nectar.

hour 10 – what is love

 

 

just kidding.

 

---

 

what is love?

reaching in the night,
and finding
my hand warm in the golden shell
of your steady breath

 

 

Peaceful Soul

Gratitude is an attitude

In the absence of gratitude,

Do not expect an attitude.

Time is a predator, eating our daily cornmeal

Stealing the apparel, attached to our jackets.

If you’ve received one of my treatments,

I appeased, from my feet to the central

I’m just a common man who is not powerless.

Endurance wasn’t my skill

But I’ve learned.

Perhaps I don’t have a milky skin.

But what has appeared would soon disappear.

WHAT IS LOVE ANYWAY?

When you’re feeling down,
And not the best version of yourself,
Love is what picks you up.

When you’ve had a bad day,
And take it out on those around you,
Love is understanding.

When you’re hurt,
And unable to care for yourself,
Love takes over.

Love is the hug that warms your heart,
The smile that lets you know things will be okay.
Love is the candy bar he knew you would like,
The call to say hi, simply because he was thinking of you.

Love is growing together.
Learning to fully give yourself to another person,
Without having any expectations in return.

Love is beautiful.
Love is a blessing.
Love is life.

Hour 7: Before I Wake

If I should die before I wake

I hope that I go quick

I spent far too many years

With my mind a bit too sick

 

If there’s a god above,

If I should die before I wake,

Please believe I wanted this

Don’t call it a mistake

 

Please don’t have a funeral

Throw a goddamn party

If I should die before I wake

Buy the good Bacardi

 

Rejoice, for I’d be happy

Cry no tears, for my sake

It’ll be a dream come true for me

If I should die before I wake

What is love? #10

What is love
But the subtle violence of feeling
That slips like a shard of glass
Insinuating between my ribs
And into my heart
All I did was think of you
And my body betrayed me
My mind, agent provocateur
Whispers of forgotten touch
And conjures the scent
Of your hair, your skin
The notes of your laugh
The flash of mischief
And quicksilver
Changes of mood in your eyes
But all that manages
Is to stab me over and over
With that glittering blade
Fragile, brittle and lethal
It’s only the memory of a feeling
Yet it cuts in ways
Steel never could.