All the ways I wish I could love You.
I wish I could love You
with a love beyond perfection,
without fracture,
without correction.
I wish I could love You
with every word of love ever spoken,
with every silence love has broken open,
with every poem that dared to bear
the weight of love, the ache of care.
I wish I could love You
with a love so high
it would touch the angels
and shatter the sky.
A love so wide
it could hold the entire world inside,
a love so deep
it could wake the soul from sleep,
and move a heart of stone
to weep.
I wish I could love You
with a pure love without pain,
a peaceful love without fury or strain,
a love as innocent
as Eden before shame.
I wish I could love You
with a holy fire,
rising above the earthly mire,
with a faith that lifts its hands to heaven
and never tires.
I wish my face could shine for You
as the moon adorns herself with light for the sun,
my feet abandon all their heaviness
and rush like a river on the run.
I wish I could love You
with every moment, movement, and breath,
with a love as final
and certain as death,
with all that I have
when all else has left,
with nothing withheld,
with nothing kept.
I wish I could love you
not only in grand sacrifice,
not only with a heart
willing to give its life,
but with the steady love
that gives itself each day,
quietly, patiently,
in its own way.
If I could love You
with a thousand righteous hearts,
I would gather everyone
into a single work of art.
Oh, how I wish
I could love you with such a love,
the dream beneath
all my dreaming of.
But I am just
a son of man.
So I will love You
with my lame hands,
with faltering feet
as I try to stand,
with a disquieted mind
that cannot understand,
yet reaches for You
as best it can.
I will love You
with this poem I could hardly muster,
simple and bare,
without much luster.
I will love You
with a stammer,
with unsmooth lips
and a tongue
heavy as a hammer.
I will love You
with an imperfect love
that limps toward grace,
through the sorrow
shadowing my face.
I will love You
even while I fall apart.
I will love You
with all my small,
broken heart.