“LOVE IS THE ULTIMATE MEASURE OF THE SOUL”

Love is the ultimate measure of the soul;

Love is the biting acid, the sure test

To strip the naked gold, discard the rest

Of earthly stuffs; Love is the one thing whole

In a world of broken parts, for Love is all.

Love is creation; Love is the low call

Of deep to deep; Love is the force that shapes

The thing that it believes, and while there gapes

The black earth-pit, where the poor flesh must fall,

Love builds on hope, and buds eternal life.

Love is a victory unsoiled by strife;

Who is there that shall adequately name

All that Love is, this thing as swift as flame

And vast as heaven, yet in every life

Tamed to the narrow needs of little men?

From humble love, that makes the partridge hen

Brave for her chickens, to the Love that shakes

The world from Calvary, all love partakes

Of immortality; one cannot pen

Divinity in words; Love is divine.

The very essence of God does Love enshrine;

For let the heart, however sorely tried,

Open itself to loving, and the wide

Earth is a home; love-lacking must decline

Where black fears crowd across the starless dark.

For Love is light; the faith that will embark,

Unpiloted, upon uncharted seas

Is Love alone; the fiery leap to seize

The splendid distant aim, the invisible mark,

What else but Love's? Love is the thing that stands

Unchanged, on changing tides and shifting sands.