A poem for you
Story and Background
For countless years growing up, I was taught to believe that hatred was the opposite of love. Over time, however, I could not help but notice how often I would hear others challenge this idea and debate the exact sensation that contrasts love to its very core.
Was it resentment or vengeance? Indifference or neglect? I would not discover the answer to such a fundamentally philosophical question for many years until I realized that love is not a feeling, not a noun, but a verb.
Later on, after going through numerous texts, narrative themes, and real-life stories, I began to recognize the connection between all negative emotions and moments of suffering with fear itself. At first, it was a difficult concept for me to grasp, for as bad as I knew it was, I would have never guessed the level of influence that fear plays in our undoing.
It appears that during our most difficult times, some element of fear is involved, displaying a form of intrusiveness and tenacious energy that can influence our ability to see ourselves, others, and life itself with genuine clarity. If we forget to notice it, it can lead us to spiral into intense moments of shame, insecurity, and self-loathing.
As a tribute to all of this, I wrote this poem about resetting our hearts from fear to love, a reminder to lean on self-compassion, presence, and gratitude in our greatest times of need. Love is a verb.
From Fear to Love
It scales stealthily
up the spine
Seizes the space
of all divine
An insisting force
through every door
Declares false permanence
evermore
Within shut rooms
of deep depression
Beneath cold, cunning
desperation
In petty quarrels,
in shame’s disguise
Its pride grows
from breaking ties
Communicative poison
at its finest
Steals self-love
and all one’s kindness
What is my purpose?
Why am I here?
Stir the questions
of taunting fear
Then distorted views
of past and future
Snatch the ground
of present’s clarity
Contorting rationality
and esteem
Into self-loathing
and fragility
You are unloveable
You are worthless
Chant the leers
of inattention
But one genuine
act of love
Fiercely drives away
all tension
It takes a moment
of self-compassion
A hand of grace
to steer intention
For being recalled
to one’s pure goodness
Summons the power
of Virtue’s trueness
Then from connection
and vulnerability
Strength breathes full
in love’s authority
Replace mere seeds
of fabrication
With flourishing wonders
for all creation
Emerge the works
of mighty alchemy
Appears this golden
heart’s reality
For human warriors
of fight or flight
Retreat and smile
in Wisdom’s sight
Thus we command
a change in course
Accept the length
of dual force
Regard this Presence
as we march on
Our eternal light
for every dawn
