On this Valentine’s Day it seems apt to consider how love is a many splendid thing, lifting us to dizzy heights and dropping us down again. It’s full of feeling, driven by emotion, laced with passion, fuelled by lust and desire, sought after and highly prized. Though it is far more than hearts and flowers, lyrics and poetry, chocolates and cards, nice as they are.

Human love is often fickle, variable, blowing hot and cold, prone to alteration and change, seared with sadness and pain. But divine Love is something else entirely—always glorious, unconditional, freeing, totally giving, honouring the other, everlasting, eternal.

In my first magnetic poetry offering today I examine a relationship which isn’t all it could be. I’ve imagined a scenario between two lovers where things once burnt firework-bright then fizzled into little sparks.

Broken fever

This hard-voiced growl from his cool

lips comes out of a broken fever

But she needs more morning peace, and

lingering longer over picturing poetry

like porcelain and remembering when joy

brilliant as fire dazzled like desire;

and warm breath-throb words could melt

her sad, icy heart with a ferocious

laugh—and a ‘let’s celebrate’ kisses embrace

©joylenton2017

 

Then I imagined a time when love was new, Eden-fresh, bright and brilliant. A morning of mists and mellow mood. A season where the sun shone softly and hearts were united as one. A time of perfect union and wild harmony.

Wild harmony

Above dawn-moist world, behold

beautiful birdsong sanctuary

of soft spring blossom colours

blooming full, warm as Eden

Here we would have strolled,

always following a quiet lake

moss-dark lichen path, as rain

breathes wild harmony like

nature’s deep, watery shade

©joylenton2017

 

God’s kind of love—pure, unselfish love—is what we are to aim for in our dealings with one another. Yet we fail spectacularly, fall flat on our faces—unless we let God live in us by His Spirit and love others in and through us. Then we have access to God’s rich, full, unlimited ability assisting our weak, limited ability to love as well as we can. And on our best, dependently-leaning-on-God-completely days, love can begin to flourish and look something like this…

“Love never gives up. Love cares for others more than self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first”, doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end” ~ 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 ‘The Message’

 

The lovely bible verse heart image above comes courtesy of little birdie blessings, which you can find here.