XLIII

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

421

A Charm invests a face
Imperfectly beheld—
The Lady dare not lift her Veil
For fear it be dispelled—

But peers beyond her mesh—
And wishes—and denies—
Lest Interview—annul a want
That Image—satisfies—

three woke this morning

to empty beds
empty sails
and empty days

one woke with certainty
one woke in turmoil
and one woke with tortured hope

...and that may make all the difference.

Happiness is

cuddling with your best friend

on a snowy day

and finding that

the only emptiness inside you

is where the pain used to be

I had laid to sleep
that voice inside me who loves,
for she bleeds and bleeds and bleeds...

but you--
with your quiet words--
have woken her again.

for,
as much as she bleeds,
she would pour yet more--
a libation into the barrenness--

if you would but fill the silence.

you ask me why I look at you
but never say a word
and you tease me--
with the sweetest lack of mercy--
to chase the sadness from my eyes...

but I am afraid.

I fear to shatter the essence of the warmth I feel for you.

for,
if I could tear my heart from myself,
and offer it to you,
though my hands tremble,
and my eyes fade,
and my lips turn gray with stillness,

I would--

if only to answer your question.

if only because,

"I love you"

is not enough.