An honest love poem

Welsh Love Letter by Michael Burn from Open Day and Night (Chatto)
Were all the peaks of Gwynedd
In one huge mountain piled,
Cnicht on Moelwyn,
Moel-y-gest, Moel Hebog,
And Eryri on top,
And all between us,
I'd climb them climb them
All!
To reach you.
Oh, how I love you!

Were all the streams of Gwynedd
In one great river joined,
Dwyfor, Dwyryd,
Glaslyn, Ogwen,
And Mawddach in flood,
And all between us,
I'd swim them swim them
All!
To reach you.
O, how I love you!

Were all the fortress of Gwynedd
In one great fortress linked,
Caer and castle,
Criccieth, Harlech,
Conwy, Caernarfon,
And all in flames,
I'd jump them jump them
All!
To reach you.
O, how I love you!

See you Saturday.
If it's not raining.


I find a lot of glorious love poems when I'm looking for material for this blog.  Some I file away, hopefully, for future personal use.  Most I read and let go.  This one, however, I just had to share.  Not because it made me laugh.  And not because I've eaten far-too-many half price gummy hearts this afternoon and have had slightly nauseating thoughts of love and romance as a result (actually I'm just slightly nauseated in general).  The more I read this poem, the more I realized that it speaks to our nature as human beings in a way that goes beyond romantic love.  It's the time worn adage, "Actions speak louder than words."  We all know better, but sometimes it's easy to get swept up in words, the words we hear from others as well as the words we say to others . . . and to ourselves.

There have been times when I've proclaimed such platitudes, expressed grand intentions.  Great passion is betrothed to the promise of dramatic action until it actually comes time to do something. Then the ifs and but' object and the wedding is off.  Sometimes it's sheer laziness, at other times self-centeredness that's at the root of my inaction.  On rare occasions I get caught up in emotion and make promises before I've really thought things through and in hindsight, realize that what I've said isn't for the higher good.

Conwy Castle, Gwynedd - Hard to set alfame, even harder to jump

Often though, it's fear that stops the action.  Placing conditions on the situation let's me off the hook emotionally.  Staying in my cozy dream world climbing imaginary Welsh mountains seems a heck of a lot safer than actually venturing out into the real world where I might get rained upon, even if I'm just stepping outside on the porch to get the mail.  

William James said, "Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action."  So this evening I'm pondering the "if's" I'm using as an excuse not to act on something that will bring happiness.  I think the first step is to plan on always carrying an umbrella.