Centerpiece of a seven sonnet series commissioned from the poet by the Crocker Art Museum, oldest in the American West.

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Recorded Reading (1:09): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2b1tp975zmzy1q08l1kit/O-This-Be-Love.mp3?rlkey=ehb1cb97k8mbwc7xfl8twl48b&st=7bjn3hlt&dl=0

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O This Be Love

O this be love, wherein one single frown
Unkind allusion, or a darkened brow
Do all the lover’s hopes bring crashing down
Nor any gleam of happiness allow

O this be love, which waits upon a smile
As on the outcome of a worldwide war,
For whom one glance may eas’ly reconcile
Any divergence which hath gone before

O this be love, when hell and heaven wait
Upon the pleasure of the best beloved
Who, ransomless, the heart holds confiscate
In iron hand, all softly velvet gloved

Ay this be love: the best, and eke the worst
Of earthly dramas here below rehearst

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