When You Have Not Had A Drink of Love

When You Have Not Had A Drink of Love

I know the way you can get when you 
have not had a drink of Love;

your face hardens, your muscles cramp, 
a strange look appears in your eyes.

Others sense your sadness,
you rip apart the sentences of friends,
weigh every word, judge many, 

and then when you meet Love,
you pull out a ruler to measure 
from every angle in your darkness,
the beautiful dimensions of this heart
that has greeted yours. 

Stop, just drink, 
just drink Love,
and give Love,
give. 

       I love how Hafiz writes this, just allow Love to greet you. Stop thinking, stop wondering, stop contemplating. Love is irrational, love is without reason, that's what makes it pure, that's what makes it emanate from the soul.

       In Letter's To A Young Poet, Rilke beautifully describes this mystery that is without words, that is beyond words: "Whoever takes it seriously, discovers that, as with death which is real, so with real love, there are no easy recipes. For both these undertakings, there are no universally agreed-upon rules. But in the same measure that we begin as individuals to explore life's meaning for us, these great things come toward us to be met and known. The claims made upon us by the hard work of love are bigger than life and essential to our unfolding, and we are seldom up to them at the outset. But if we hold steady and take this love upon us as a task and a teaching, instead of losing ourselves in an easy and frivolous game behind which to hide the most honest questions of our existence—this may be felt as a small illumination and step forward by those who come long after us. That in itself would be a lot." O, to write like that!
       Listen to the lyrics of Paul Stookey's song Wedding Song (There Is Love): "You believe in something you never did before." 

Wedding Song (There Is Love), Paul Stookey