Living Tree Poetry

I will fail you
And you will fail me.
Its inevitable.
Strains are necessary
in the fabric
of love’s covering.
A baby in the womb
lengthens its limbs
and curls its fist,
in preparation for life’s journeying.

Tears appear
not because we’ve failed,
to steel our love against tests.
But because
love is strong enough
to stretch,
to allow failure and hurt
to raise its voice
and then repent.
To tend to wounds uncovered.

The fabric of love
in truth
is not something that’s never been torn.
But rather
something that’s gained its beauty and strength
from its reinforcements.
Its tears repaired
again and again,
until goodwill’s
restored.

Love’s a patchwork quilt
of remembrance
that can raise when needed.
To catch the undercurrents
and to provide
a platform for uplift.
For us all to rise
and catch our breaths,
to then gain the distance needed,
to value our attachments.

To recognise the strength
of love’s encompassment,
a fabric that bears any strain.
That covers the wounds we
impart in our
selfishness.
That measures us
again and again
not by how we fall
but how we rise once again.

A quilt of a thousand uses
and counting.

Ana Lisa de Jong
January 2018