The definitive L-Word

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Today’s poem first appeared on the blog in 201l; I am repeating the entire post as it appeared then and since.

In my collection, I dedicated today's poem to a lovely American couple I met on a train in 1999 while travelling from San Francisco to New York; their children had treated them to their first trip outside California for a golden wedding anniversary present. 

It was a wonderful journey, a lively adventure that took a little over three days. It was the conference season and no sleepers were available so we slept in our seats. I got to know some lovely people on that train and during my 4-week stay in the States, I kept in touch with that particular couple, I am so glad to have met them; their devotion to each other shone through as did their sheer goodness and sense of fun, all of which made a lasting and deeply spiritual impression on me. [Needless to say, they had no problem with my being gay.]

[Update 2/2016: Sadly, one of these friends has since died and his widow has Alzheimer's disease; a lovely couple, a sure sign that love is, indeed, the better part of eternity.]

Love, of course, comes in all shapes and sizes; family, friends, animals, even places ...all may find hold a special place in our hearts, invariably bringing out the best of human nature while doing its utmost to compensate for the worst. How far (or not) it succeeds ... well, that is down to each and every one of us. Whatever, love is eternal, affecting us in ways that will, in due course, be assimilated into a posthumous consciousness affecting the lives of others long after we have made our peace with mortality ... whether we subscribe to any religion or not.

This poem is a villanelle.

THE DEFINITIVE L-WORD

Love, sweet mystery

rising above all things,

ecstasy or misery

Poor though we be

or walk among kings ...

Love, sweet mystery

Who can say or see

of what a bluebird sings?

(Ecstasy or misery)

Around our history

forever running rings ...

Love, sweet mystery

A millennium story

that to each of us brings

ecstasy or misery

Bringing to eternity

the lesser of our failings,

love is a mystery,

ecstasy or misery

Copyright R. N. Taber 2007; 2016

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears under the title 'The L-Word' in A Feeling for the Quickness of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2003.]