Poem for Monday – Let’s talk about Love

One of the things I want to do consistently in this blog is talk about love through many mediums. I’m interested in how astrology can open conversations about love and how poetry is a gateway to pierce the heart. Whatever medium we work with or whatever conversation we are having, there is always a threshold that waits to be crossed. That threshold is an entrance to the heart. And once that threshold is crossed, we feel the vastness of the heart that touches everything. Once we choose to cross into that vastness, we are choosing to walk in love, as love and for love-- no matter what we are doing or with whom.

Aimless Love

This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,
I fell in love with a wren
and later in the day with a mouse
the cat had dropped under the dining room table

In the shadows of an autumn evening,
I fell for a seamstress
still at her machine in the tailor’s window
and later for a bowl of broth,
steam rising like smoke from a naval battle.

This is the best kind of love, I thought,
without recompense, without gifts,
or unkind words, without suspicion,
or silence on the telephone.

The love of a chestnut,
the jazz cap and one hand on the wheel.

No lust, no slam of the door-
the love of the miniature orange tree,
the clean white shirt, the hot evening shower,
the highway that cuts across Florida,

No waiting, no huffiness, or rancor-
just a twinge every now and then

for the wren who had built her nest
on a low branch overhanging the water
and for the dead mouse,
still dressed in its light brown suit.

But my heart is always propped up
in a field on its tripod,
ready for the next arrow.

After I carried the mouse by the tail
to a pile of leaves in the woods,
I found myself standing at the bathroom sink
gazing down affectionately at the soap,

so patient and soluble,
so at home in its pale green soap dish.
I could feel myself falling again
as I felt its turning in my wet hands
and caught the scent of lavender and stone.

- Billy Collins