Long 575 Poems

574 LETTERS

AUTHOR'S NOTE
This poem is inspired by the true story of poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. Bedridden and isolated, Elizabeth received a letter from Robert that began, "I love your verses with all my heart." Over 20 months they exchanged 574 letters that mended her fear and gave her life back.


        574 LETTERS
    
Elizabeth lay bedridden in a lonely room,  
A wounded bird behind walls of gloom.  
Then came a letter, soft as a spell,  
_"I love your verses with all my heart" Robert would tell.  

A crack of light filled her cage of fear,  
Whispers of love drove the mist from here.  
574 letters crossed the night,  
Mending her wings with gold and light.  

Like lilies that grew in abandoned ground,  
Her broken life to heaven was bound.  
He didn’t burn the past or the pain,  
He wrote her hope till she lived again.  

So mend, don’t burn. Write, don’t run.  
Love can heal anyone, anyone.