“Let there be spaces in your togetherness,
      And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

     Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
      Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
      Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
      Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
      Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of your be alone,
      Even as the strings of the lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

     Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
      For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
      And stand together yet not too near together:
      For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
      And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”

~ Kahlil Gibran

*****

Recorded Reading (0:50): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1xd2or7tyme1e8zg6h9it/Not-Love-but-Fear.mp3?rlkey=dz4s9lj3c98n7lg3yazpnlhwt&st=j4dkrnvg&dl=0

*****

Not Love but Fear

I love in peace
No harm will come
Intent’ionally to you from me

And our release
O’ercloseness from
In its times likewise harmless be

Love is no box
In which to put
The object of ones highest heart

Under grim locks
Their freedom gut
Of others’ lives to be a part

Any who say
Requirement is
That love must linger always near

Nor go its way
Times near, times far
Exper’iences not love, but fear

*****

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