Let love go, to let it return;
Let love out, to let it in.

So it is with us:
Let us go, so we may return.
Let us out, so we may enter
Into our own.

Let love go from us;
May it come full circle.

All things are boomerangs.
Life can be a catching-game,
Or the use of a weapon.

But let love out-
Let love in.

***

Do not be deterred in this;
Not even by bullets.

The first rule of responsibility;
Do not excuse your acts
With circumstances,
Do not justify or characterize
Anything or anyone,
Including yourself.

Act as you think best,
Your acts will speak
For themselves,
Louder than you ever will
With your own mouth.

It is not that circumstances
Do not affect us,
But their affects upon us
Cannot conquer our will
To change our lives,
By changing our habits
Of conduct, and of thought-

This is a learned impetus
That is not taught to all,
But must be taught
More widely.

***

‘I’ begins outside us;
Most of what makes us
Was there before us,
And brought together-
Grown in the wombs
Of our mothers,
Took shape in the minds
And lives
Of other people.

These cells and standards,
These nutrients and notions,
Started outside this body,
This mind, this life-

Someday, they will all
Be outside it, again.

Our cells recycle
Every seven years,
And the same air
We breathe,
The same water
We drink,
Has been here,
Cycled through
Millions of bodies,
Human and non-human,
For millennia.

Particles of the same air
I breathe may have
Been inhaled into the lungs
Of Shakespeare,
A factory worker
In the next city over,
A subsistence farmer
In the Sudan.

While living, we are
More than our parts;
When we are dead,
We will be less.

All things pass.
Each past was once
Someone else’s
Only present,
And they could not
See beyond it,
Any more than we
Can see beyond ours.

We all live, and die-
All things come, and go-
And fear does not save
A single one.

***

Life is love,
Suffering as roses for beauty,
Vicious as a cornered animal,
Nervous as a porcupine
Unsure if it has
Enough quills…

Love only comes to us
When we let our words
Slip from us, carrying
What we wanted to hide-
When we have courage,
To speak as if it had
The chance to be real.

To act is to make
Theoretical chances
Into actual possibilities.

When we have courage
To live as if we have
The chance to be strong,
And beautiful as our dreams,
Fear has lost its power.

We may not have lost
That fear, but we have
Gained something else:

The surety that our love
And our life matter more.

They are worth acting on,
Against our fear,
And against its control.

Run to each challenge
Before you think twice,
Before you let cowardice
In the name of discretion
Counsel us- as if wisely-

Against the wisdom
Of our courage, the joy
Of our audacity.

Rediscover exhilaration
By doing what you once
Thought- maybe, once
Was five minutes ago-

That you could not.

Do the kind of good things
That intimidate you,
And you will grow
Faster than anyone
Had believed possible.

***

There are days when our acts,
And the scope of our will,
Are more circumscribed by
Ourselves than circumstance-
Habits of thought, and action.

Do you know what you’re doing?

Pay attention
To all that is in you-
And all the people
Who are with you,
In your heart,
By your side.

***

Let down your defenses.
Cease to guard
The boundaries,
And the sundry, sordid
Secrets of yourself.

You have no safe in your heart,
You must open yourself
To feel free, you must lay down
Your arms to feel unafraid-

You must say
Almost everything
If you are to disarm
Everyone you once
Mistook for enemy.

People think they know
What guns are for,
What words are for;
They don’t.

***

We think we know the enemy,
And sometimes,
They think they are
Our enemies, too.

Perhaps they killed your friends,
Your family, your partner,
You believed they were
Your enemy in fact-

They were not.

They did not know
What they did,
And neither do we.

They were afraid,
They were fools,
They were responsible-

It is not for to judge.

That is for our nations,
That is for other people’s politics,
And both are ugly business;
Neither do much good.

Where did judging ever get us?
Or defense by offense?

We must be better
Than what has been done to us,
Or we have affirmed
The most nihilistic form
Of determinism-

By choosing to be no more
Loving, and no less cruel,
Than what was done to us,
And saying that is the only way
It could be.

But, live and let love
More than circumstances,
More than people,
Can ever justify
Or deserve-

Because who is to say
What is just?
Who is to say
What they deserve?

Who is say
Unconditional love
Is ever lost?

***

We will not be dissuaded,
Or break ourselves down
Before we can even try,
Lest our trying disappoint.

We will try, risking
Disappointment;
We will not stop
Trying, we will not stop
Risking, no matter
What disappointment
May come.

Refuse to stop trying;
You deserve to keep on,
You may have the victory,
And you do not need
To take it from anyone-

No one has a monopoly
On the fulfillment
Of a dream,
As there are so many
Dreams to have.

***

We will not harden
Our hearts;
We will not deny
Our will to grow,

Though our hearts
May ache-
Though our growing
Will not go forever.

We pass on our
Hearts, whether
They are loving
Or unloving;

We pass on our
Approach to life,
Whether it embraces
The healthy,
Or the unhealthy-
The growing,
Or the withering.

Let us pass on
Loving hearts,
Let us pass on
The vitality
Of love for life,
Love for labor,
Love for love,
Love for challenge-

Let us pass on
A will to rise each day
To each loving struggle.

***

I used to say,
Come in, love,
Where are you?

I used to say,
Come out, life,
Where are you?

Now, I will go
To where you are-
Love, life,
And my dreams.

I will meet you each
At least halfway,
Or further still;

I will do my part,
And more.

Regardless of reward,
Regardless of applause,
I will do more
Than is asked of me,
In the faith-

For it is a faith-

That love and life, in virtue,
Are their own values,
An inherent reward.

Whether they give
Anything else,
They give themselves,
And so do I.

At least, I try.

***

Let love in,
And let it out.

It’s like breathing,
This way-

Breath is necessary to life,
And we do not breathe better
By refusing to exhale…

Holding onto the air
We currently have in our lungs,
Attaching ourselves to that-

Wouldn’t that be foolish?

To continue to breathe
Means not to hold our breath.

***

It’s not that simple, in life.

But it is a useful metaphor
To remind us, when
Trying too hard to hold on,
Not to protest so much
Against each that leaves.

We all leave, sometimes;
Let it go, and move on.

***

If someone demands
We not let them go,
Or even carry them,
Let us carry them
Twice as far as they asked,
Even if it’s past
Their destination-

If they demand we take
Their lives onto our backs,
We have become their guides,
For we are not
Their conveyances-

Let us guide them
As we think best,
But not for our own sake.

When we let them down,
Let’s walk on
Without looking back,
Without thinking back.

***

Let love go…
It will shine out from us
Until we, as personalities,
Are not even visible-

But images,
Symbols-

Or, nowhere in sight,
And that is best of all.

To be there, to be present,
To be more than ourselves;

To do good,
Shine on everything.

What is worst in you
Will not be seen,
By you or another,
Until it is not even there.

When we forget it is there,
We forget to act on it
Until it is wholly absent
In our hearts and our acts.

***

I believe in the perfectibility
Of human beings-
Our capacity to bring ourselves
Closer to our ideals
Than external circumstances
Explain- not simply by will,
But a good will that does not
Demand, or force, but moves
Ever closer.

I do not believe in perfection,
But our ability to approach
The heights of our values-
Until a careless vision may
Equate the one with the other.

Never mistake people
For principles made manifest,
But dance so close
To your virtues that no light
Can fall between you.

Never forget the two of you
Are not wholly the same-
But become so near each other,
So harmonious, you are often
Unable to tell precisely where
You leave off, and they begin.

Where ego ends, they begin,
But where does ego end?
Where do they begin?

***

Love comes in the same door
We open to let it out;
Never shut that door.

Your heart will no longer
Be a house for yourself,
But a shrine for the world.

When the barriers fall,
When the artificial divides
Are crumbled,
We flow into each other
And though we will not
Learn to be wholly
Without divides
In one generation,
We can begin to learn
They are less firm
Than we have made them.

In this, as in all things,
Love between people-
As a metaphor, for embracing
The world with understanding-
Is the key to opening
Our minds and hearts.

Neither are wholly ours,
Or wholly chosen-
But, by choosing
What we give away,
We choose what we receive;

By choosing how much
We set down, we choose
How much we can pick up.

***

Keep room
In your arms and hearts,
Stay open,
Until you really need-

Fill that room
For someone else,
Commit to an embrace
Another person requires.

You do not have
To pick up anything,
You do not need to replace
You do not need to substitute-
The gap is useful,
It does not need
To be filled.

The less you have,
The less you feel you need-
The more you may give,
The more you can give yourself
Permission to do so.

We can always give
That permission,
But we rarely give it
When we hold on to things,
And we rarely stop holding on
To things
Until we let things go,
And have fewer things
In our lives.

***

You have more money
Than you can wisely spend
On yourself? Wonderful.
Spend it on someone else.

You have more thoughts
Than you can healthily spend
On yourself? Wonderful.
Spend them on someone else.

You have more desires
Than you can satisfy?
Wonderful. Satisfy another,
And your own will come-
The rest will be given you
If you give away this.

***

Love is the central metaphor;
Love is the key to everything,
But it does not turn itself;

I want to say it is something
Other than love, which turns
That key, but it is not
Something at all-

It is a someone,
Which lets in the world
By first expanding
The circle of their love.

Turn the key-
Meet the world-
You are someone,

Why not you?