It’s Valentines’ Day tomorrow so a love poem for the poem of the week seems appropriate. And given that I seem to have a few love poetry books, I have quite a choice! I’m normally pretty low-key about Valentine’s Day to be honest, feeling that it is over commercial, etc etc but this year, still in lockdown 3, celebrating anything seems like a good idea! So tomorrow I will be making a Valentine’s cake on request, some valentine’s biscuits for the children and attempting to inspire them to make hearts to put in the window. Anything to mark the time as different!
The poem I have chosen for this week, I think I read at a friend’s wedding many years ago. I remember searching for it during lockdown 2. I love its simplicity and yet the power of the language. It is surprisingly hard to get the cadence right when reading out loud, but beautiful nonetheless.
Love Tells Us Who We Are
Love Tells Us Who
We Are. When I asked the
Answer “Who?”
No Love Answered
So I knew I
Had to Wait
For Love.
For
We are No one
Before Love
A missing clue looking
For a Person
A Star looking for
A sky
An “I am” waiting for
An I
Music Tells Us
What We Feel
But Cannot Say
Love Reveals
What We Know
But cannot See
Before You I was Nothing But
When You Gave me Your Hand
I took My Hand
For Love Tells Us Who
We Are So
When I asked the
Answer “Who?”
Love Answered
You.
Donald T. Sanders (From Art and Love, ed. Kate Farrell, 1990).