Poem: "Beyond Human Strength"

"Beyond Human Strength"

One cannot weep for the entire world: it is beyond human strength. One must choose. - Jean Anouilh (1954)


Love is. Love is. Love is.
Love wins. Love wins. It wins.
Please may it win yet.

"Love wins." Grief is all around.

I am not yet resigned
to the shutting away
of loving hearts

But the ground
is cold
and all the voices
silent.

I cannot speak
for my mouth
is stopped up with wanting
and my tongue is torn
and out of this silence
what is to be borne? It is too heavy
and too worn.

For years too worn
with wanting safety
and out of sorrow still
love wins and feeds yet
out of ashes sown in salt.

This grief belongs
in leaden caskets
with history and with the dead
this grief belongs
to love and daring - who dares
wins - who cares if
this grief is also mine?

And if this were a choice
I would not choose.