My favorite love poem - West Wind 2 by Mary Oliver

for Dan on Valentine's Day

West Wind 2
by Mary Oliver

You are young. So you know everything. You leap

into the boat and begin rowing. But, listen to me.

Without fanfare, without embarrassment, without

any doubt, I talk directly to your soul. Listen to me.

Lift the oars from the water, let your arms rest, and

your heart, and your heart's little intelligence, and listen to 

me. There is life without love. It is not worth a bent

penny, or a scuffed shoe. It is not worth the body of a 

dead dog nine days unburied. When you hear, a mile

away and still out of sight, the churn of the water

as it begins to swirl and roil, fretting around the

sharp rocks --- when you feel the mist on your mouth

and sense ahead the embattlement, the long falls

plunging and steaming---then row, row for your life

toward it.

Still Waters. ©2010. Lisa McShane.