Is It Love

Here is a beautiful poem by Amaya Gregory exploring the meaning and many guises of “Love.”

Which part of this poem has a special meaning to you and the loves you may have experienced in your lifetime?

Read on…

Is It Love

is it love
or is it tolerance
does love stand by
as its beloveds are
berated
does it have a sense
of forbearance
a squeal of magnanimity
does it wait patiently
as targets are put
on the backs of the undesirables
as those who are different
are twisted into cannon fodder
for hate
does it watch silently
as dislike builds into
something much more dangerous
building walls around itself
shoring itself up
driving its split tongue message
into the hearts of humanity
rousing to some
chilling to those
on the other side
of the ever-widening divide
…
is it love
or is it tolerance
that gives hatred its head
allowing it
not condoning
nor confronting it
trusting it to work itself out
somehow
is that love
or is it blindness
is that love
or is it fear
ill will that colors
the damage tolerance does
with unseen shades
of its own undoing
…
love doesn’t whimper
it doesn’t whisper
it doesn’t stand silent
as hatred builds
into an unstoppable force
that’s tolerance
not love
that’s fear
prettied up
sanitized
for public consumption
…
would love
stand by and watch
as we are acclimatized to
being rent asunder
would it stand back as friends
and family
are rounded up
herded to trains
imprisoned behind
barbed wire
sent to the showers
of gas
we did it once
will we do it again
if history has a story to tell
it is that
we can be too tolerant
so aloof in our sufferance
that we turn a blind eye
as the heat is turned up
ever so routinely
as to be unnoticeable
…
it’s a game
right
like playing dominoes
but for bigger stakes
there will be winners
and losers
but no one
not even those who
stand seemingly in the midst of fear
believe that those on any side
will come to harm
not real harm
not lasting harm
it’s hype
no one really means it
it’s trash talk
the locker room
gone mainstream
a strategy to win the game
nothing to fear
nothing to lose sleep over
nothing to pull your hair out about
…
do you want to know
if it’s love or tolerance
it’s not difficult to tell
love doesn’t break the world
Into pieces
It loves the haters
and the lovers
alike
gently sternly unequivocally
guiding itself
in all its many forms
back to itself
…
that’s what we all want
even those who seem like
they don’t
we all burn with
a need
to be listened to
and actually intimately
heard
we crave a way
to let go of the fear that
fills our nights and days
we want to find a way
to move past the haunted
shadows of trauma
and soothe the insatiable
dissatisfied urges within
we want to find release from the pain
the searing pain that tells us
not to trust in love
not to open our hearts
not to hope for
something
good
we want to finally find
our way out of
the dark lands of heartache
discover the way back home
where we are held
without conditions
in the arms of love
…
if you want to heal
the gaping wounds
of our world
open your heart
big enough
to love it as it is

•••

If you liked this piece, you might enjoy Amaya’s new book, Actuality: infinity at play available at Amazon in paperback and e-book. https://amzn.to/3Rd4CTY

Art by Josephine Wall