ABOUT LOVE
Love is a fickle thing, isn’t it?
An ebb and flow, there is a beauty in the rarity of finding a kindred soul. There is that feeling of safety, the spark of inspiration, it feels like everything, yet provides no tangible proof when it’s gone.
I wrote this piece trying to write for the prompt “ what is love” — I did my research and read countless poems and came up with countless versions, all entirely too long and desperately inauthentic.
It bothered me for a while because I should know what love feels like, I am lucky to be loved. I have also been in love, at least I think I have? I seem to have these cycles of connection where I’m convinced that I have felt deep and intense love, yet after a while, when the dust settles, I’m just not sure.
What I truly know of love, I know from family, it is a place to return to, and even though family will never be perfect. For me, my home has been a sanctuary, a place of familiarity and safety — after spending years trying to leave, in my times of greatest heartache, home gave me shelter.
But there is more to love than just romance and family, so I took to looking through some old poetry — you know the ones we all write about falling in love, and I came across a poem that made my heart beat out of my chest, my face went flush, and suddenly I couldn’t hear and in that moment of deafening silence words literally flooded into my head.
Love is all the things I mentioned above — you feel it, you hear it, it is like fire and ice, it stops and speeds the passage of time, it literally transports you. Love is ineffable, but I am trying regardless — so here it goes, from me to you, with all my love;
Let me tell you what love sounds like
It sounds like the fast patter of a heart
And the catch of breath
It feels like daylight and moonshine
And kisses on your skin
Like fiery pricks that draw you in
It looks like home and adventure
All at the same time
Bringing you gifts and triumph
With the passing of time
Love is a promise of warmth
And shelter from storms
It is a space to belong
