Golgotha

This feels like an in-depth look into the idea that it's better to have loved and lost than not at all. Where there is love, there is always loss. The pain and the joy is here.

Thank you for your observations.   Have you read Kahlil Gibran's works? Particularly "On Love"? It's a fascinating insight to the true nature of Love. I highly recommend it, as well as his book entitled "The Prophet".      
   
Some feel they can direct the course of Love; however, it is Love who directs theirs. Some completely surrender to that direction and are crucified to be reborn enlightened. The Parable of the Crucifixion for Love by Jesus is a perfect example. Others cover their nakedness and run from the threshing floor.      
   
We must willingly die to ego ( aka fear ) if we want to be born in Love and drink from its Holy Grail of completion. It's truly what we were born to do.    
   
It's truly what everyone wants, and wishes they were brave enough to Trust and succeed.

I read "The Prophet" long ago, but not "On Love". I remember being moved by it, but time has taken its toll on remembering more than that. I think I'll put them both towards the top of my to-read list.

Allow me the honor:    
 
Kahlil Gibran on Love  

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.  

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.  

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.  

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.  

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.  

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.  

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

To say I wasn't prepared for that is an understatement. I'm not sure if I feel threshed or thrashed, but I'll confess that the screen is swimming at the moment.

Love 101 ❤

love & war
wounded & slain
fall to poetry...

Dammit woman I hate feeling 'jelly sandwich'd' but that JB is sooooo lucky! Lol...oh n ur piece is spectacular!! :)

i have been reading a whole lot of gibran lately, it's quite an eye opener for someone who is jaded by the concept of love and hurt...
... loving is such a beautiful risk
and you write it with pure grace
xo

Beautiful.  

 I would try to comment on this, if not for a waterfall of tears cascading right behind my eyes.

💜

Is it possible to feel so very sad, yet feel uplifted? - this poem is a thing of beauty. I often read your poetry and wish that I could write like that - it's not jealousy its aspiration :-)

a truly excellent Ink :-)

Thank you, David. To aspire to be like another is an honor indeed. I definitely think you can feel both sad and uplifted at once. It might be what Gibran described as the pain of too much tenderness, the wounded understanding of love, and bleeding willingly and joyfully.

Of course I love this one:

'We were born
to be wounded by our own
understanding of Love '

I love how you quoted the masters,
I have The Prophet, haven't read it in a while, the other one you excerpted sounds like a good book too

On Love is a chapter in The Prophet. The entire book can be read in one sitting; however, meaning evolves over time and experience when you revisit. The illustrations are beautiful. I have a very old copy that I consider as priceless as a Holy Book - I believe it to be. Thank you for your comment.

Whether we run to it or run from it either way love will find us not we find love.... But it is something innate in all of us that we actually do yearn for love even if knowing there might be pain not too far off for we will have our hearts exposed...  I am definitely digging this piece and the way in which it is written....

~BSavvy

Love will find us indeed. Thank you, BSavvy!

"We were born for war...loves threshing floor"

yes there is no retreat or surrender before existence

excellent write my sister

Thank you, Brother. It's good to see you back.

At a quick glace looks a good  read will save so I can read later.