“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”
~ Emily Dickinson
Every now and then, a poem captures my attention. This poem came to me from a friend at the start of 2017. So commanding is the poem, that I have committed it to memory and often perform it in my storytelling program, Legacy of Love. Gratitude to the poets who capture our hearts; they take our insides out and bring the outside in. May this inspire you as much as it inspires me.
This Poem Begins With Love
~ by Debra Hiers
This poem begins with love,
tree root love, olive branch love,
deer grazing at sunset love,
birds swooning in morning sun love.
Yes, this poem begins with love,
the kind of love that is me
loving you loving me love
a smile here, a hello there
real stubborn neighborly love
crossing boundaries love
global village love
the love that says
take a stand, take a knee.
This killing ain’t right love.
Yes, this poem begins with love
reaching out to one another love
witnessing that which resides in all of us love
the suffering we all bear in the bits and pieces
of what is lost love, this intersection
of humanity where the heart lives
where this poem finds its place
in our belonging to each other love.
Yes, this poem begins with love.
© d.hiers, atlanta, GA 26. September 2016
(Posted here with permission.)
May we always begin and end with love.
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