<Prompt: Two-fer–Write a love poem and/or an anti-love poem>

This poem says it wants to be about love.
What can I say about love
that hasn’t already been said
a thousand times,
a thousand ways?

We all know the dangers.
Here, take my heart, this crystal orb,
and hold it carefully, we say
to any scoundrel who strolls by.

Why are we always so shocked, so
shattered, when we see the scattered pieces,
the remnants strewn about?

Look into that orb, your own.
Find fury there, and hate.
Find despair and rage.
Then tell me, my friend,
when you settle into their abode,
if they are not often
simply other words for love.

The purest fury, the
most white-hot rage,
the seizing grief:
most of these would cease to be
were they not born of deepest love.

No, hate is not the opposite of love,
I say.  Love’s opposite is apathy.

So then, take heart.
Let not dismay dismay you.
That which hurts you hurts you
because your heart is deep and full,
so full, of devotion to that which you love.

Gratitude List:
1.  Packing herbs at Radiance: Burdock and Dandelion roots, hyssop, pulmonaria, codonopsis, marshmallow root, spearmint, peppermint, mullein leaf, and the ever-popular damiana
2.  The new stones at the shop: Apache tears, spirit quartz, bright pink rhodonite, dream quartz, kambaba jasper, a giant smoky quartz point
3.  Lancaster City at sunset, from five stories up in the parking garage.  And the moment when the world begins to turn from violet to indigo.
4.  Listening to Layne Redmond’s Invoking Aphrodite on the drive home, toward that sparkling flower that is Venus, which is Aphrodite’s other name.  Am I going Van Gogh, or was there a bright golden ring around her this evening?
5.  Ellis’s un-self-conscious chuckle

So much Love.