Live and love, love and live

EVERYTHING AND THE OPPOSITE OF EVERYTHING

Ashok Silwal

… because we were too happy,
We felt light, able to fly…
Because we were too unhappy,
We felt crushed by a huge and heavy stone….
We all asked ourselves, one day or another,
Was it love? What is love?
Out loud, exchanging ideas and feelings with others,
Just whispering in the secret silence of our heart,
About this swirling ‘disruption’, for good or for bad,
Capable of taking you over the moon, on cloud Nine,
Or to squash you to the ground, destroyed….

Because love strengthens you but it can weaken you too,
It dynamizes you but it can immobilize you,
It lights you up but it can turn you off.

Indefinable, incomparable and so irreplaceable..
You try to find describing words…
Impetuous as a horse, sweet as a lamb,
But when you have written, you realize
That a lot of details and shades are missing,
And you could sing otherwise…

From the man in the street up to the great poet,
From the young boy to the nostalgic old man,
From the beautiful girl to the old remembering lady,
Love is expressed in metaphors:
Flowers, animals, natural elements, colors, music,
Even….. tools and kitchen utensils……

Love becomes:
The sun, the moon, the air,
The fire, the star, the river,
The butterfly, the honey, the rose,
The storm, the knife, the hammer,
A blanket, a shirt, a symphony……

Love takes color:
Blue, red, yellow,
Golden, translucent, transparent,
Shady and black sometimes….

Loving becomes :
An infinity of gestures, actions, steps, signals
Because to love is to fly and dream,
To love is to understand and respect,
To love is to kiss, to caress, to touch, to enjoy,
To love is accepting, meditating, thinking,
To love is to get tired and to rest,
To love is walking, singing, dancing,
To love is waiting happy or in pain,
To love is to wrap in the tenderness of a hug…

Love dresses you up and denudes you….

You know it will make you suffer
But you want it, you look for it, your feed it,
Because it is everything and the opposite of everything,
And this duplicity makes it unique.

It is like life which is a death too..
And besides….. just one letter changes:
LIVE and LOVE
Because LIVING IS LOVING
And LOVING IS LIVING……

Happy Valentine’s Week to all of you!
In the indispensable madness of LOVE…