"Winter Has Descended... "

I am moved by... The notion of some infinitely gentle Infinitely suffering thing. T. S. Eliot Winter has descended into our company like an ornery guest who will share no hospitality but just piles snow and more snow, and spreads sheer cold over our bodies and souls. Shivering outside and inside, I write you a letter to feel your warmth I use the word "love" three times, twice on page two and once on page four. For me all of it is just words on paper. Forgive me, I did not realize the vibrancy of your heart would be so touched, so aroused. The first time you read the word "love" on page two, your sleeping heart awoke and spread sweetness and light throughout your being, and things dark and harsh within became radiant. The second time your eyes encountered the same word on the same page, you rejoiced to see "love" in flight, circling in freedom, but staying close to its home - a gesture of hope, an act of kindness, a blessing. You paused. You asked me why I was so unmoved, but I was heavy with wonder, and I was as still as a tree drinking in an excess of light. You smiled, and it was another of light that nourished my inner being... Then you read the final "love" on page four and declared it was "agape" love that immediately, at the speed of light, circled the globe with radiance that outshone briefly the dawn's brilliance. And then it was over: we stood together, amazed but content, in the afterglow of a shared vision. And we simply accepted the common light of an ordinary day.... (This poem is a response to a beautiful but bitter-sweet poem by Nosheen Irfan, "We vowed to stay together....")