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A Thing or Two about Love
 
All love is love for God, is Dante’s theory
in his Commedia. This morning, Jim
asks, “Who believes in true love?” Every hand
goes up. And then he says the troubadours
came up with that one. “It is better to
have loved and lost,” they also say. For all
the chitchat, still the heart has wings. Upon
Queen Mary’s heart was the word Calais, since
she lost that town, I’ve said this. The café
I write in has its ebb and flow – a glance
is traded, a word given. This is how
we live our lives, and it is love. If God
 
observes our world, I’d bet He is content
to see the handshake and the smile, to hear
the cat purr on the lap. “A Thing or Two
about Love” could contain those things, they’re not
uninteresting. All the way from youth
the proffered hand comes – the heart breaks. It is
the air we breathe. A thing or two I’ve lost
will not outweigh my green heart. It will lift
to see you in the doorway, my beloved,
to hear your voice. And this is hardly new,
but it bears telling. If the love of God
is just this feeling, then I’m glad of it.

 
John Isbell

If you have any thoughts about this poem,  John Isbell would be pleased to hear them

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