Why Do You Love Me

For what I write- is that the reason why? You visit me and spend with me some time Perhaps it is for words that make you sigh Or truth you find well hidden in my rhyme? Is it, perchance, to see a coy sweet smile The vision of a woman in your mind Perhaps forgetting troubles for a while Elusive peace in what I write you find But if I leave and can no longer write Will time erase my presence from your heart? If brokenness and strife have dimmed my sight In coming days, will I no more have part? Sought after and adored if I’m to be For naught else let it be than being me Eileen Manassian Ghali I’ve been thinking about this community a great deal lately. We claim that we love each other. We claim to be there through thick and thin. FEW…yes, FEW can stake a claim to that. I’ve been under the weather for the last couple of days. I’ve been ill….AND….I’ve been forgotten. I know, it is easy to point the finger. There have been poets here who have gone missing, and I do often wonder where they are…..if they are ill, disheartened or just disinterested. I wish I could say that I’ve always sent a little message saying that they are missed. I haven’t. Yes, we are all in love with poetry, but I hope we can see beyond the poet’s words and into his/her heart…..There abides a person wanting to be loved for whom he/she IS…and NOT simply for what he/she can GIVE. I’d like to share this lovely poem that illustrates this so well…..HUGS If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say 'I love her for her smile—her look—her way Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'— For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,— A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love's sake, that evermore Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity. Elizabeth Barrett Browning