by Max Carl Kirk
a poetic writing on love and atonement
Love knows the deepest secrets of the universe,
and when it does not know,
love knows how to learn
and works hard to learn.
Love is able to find the way
to bring justice all around,
when justice is one thing on one side
and another thing on the other side.
Love is able to bring peace to the ear
when its honour has been offended.
Love is always able to follow you,
and if you become lost in your heart,
love is always able to guide you to safety.
Love is the sweet smelling spice in the heart
that, with wisdom, seeks out
the scent of the bitter herb of the heart's insecure pride,
blends it in, heals it, and harmonizes it
in a wondrous fragrance.
Love is the teacher of confidence,
and the best friend of every skill.
Love is a genius in planning things that are good,
and in creating practical visions that come true.
Truth and love do not have different minds,
but listen joyfully to one another
and compose their songs together
and practice how to sing harmony for one another.
Love has the intelligence to know how
to endure the worst violence
and still think tenderly about life.
When all else fails, love is still there,
just being with you,
so gently and quietly
that sometimes you don't even know it,
until love opens its hand to you
with gifts of art and hope
that allow your eyes to again see beauty.
Love is the mother of forgiveness,
and knows how to teach forgiveness
how to gather up the fragments of
all that is broken in the world
and build them into a house
of grace and order, laughter and joy.
Love is understanding.
Love is the humble student of the Divine;
therefore there are multitudes of wrongs
that love knows how to hide
with such wisdom that they cannot be found again.
Love takes nothing by violence
and keeps nothing by means of violence.
If love has to choose,
love chooses to lose the whole world
to save its soul.
