Ah poetry… invigorating poetry makes my spirit jump up within me. I woke up this morning and suddenly had to get my poetry fix. It’s the beginnings of a revival of creativity in my busy life. I’m so looking forward to painting and more poetry, creative writing and photography. In a few weeks after I get a major project done, I’ll even end my musical constipation and actually pick up an instrument again. O Joy!

A few poems that I found arresting in my readings today:

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed

Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright,
Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light
Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:
And love is fire. And when I say at need
I love thee . . . mark! . . . I love thee—in thy sight
I stand transfigured, glorified aright,
With conscience of the new rays that proceed
Out of my face toward thine. There’s nothing low
In love, when love the lowest: meanest creatures
Who love God, God accepts while loving so.
And what I feel, across the inferior features
Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show
How that great work of Love enhances Nature’s.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Random pic: With lil' Tony at the Sichuan earthquake epicenter in 2008. He was traumatized by the quake and kept throwing rocks at people, the ground. Tony wouldn't let anyone hold him until I picked him up.