A Young Girl Asks

"What is this love that all men seek

For I am not aware of it.

Tell me if you know and speak

That I may with its light be lit

And all my being feel its glow."

The man, though hesitant, replied,

"I knew a love that widened so

It lifted me, she lately died.

I found a love where in the East

The sun turns black the whitened skin.

She whom I met my soul released

And counselled me to look within.

Love is not found in outward things,

Escapes the clutch of every hand,

True love a deeper silence brings,

Allows the mind to understand

Surrender as the greatest love,

Or we may say it is to give,

To consecrate all that we have;

Through love we then begin to live."

The child then asked the following,

Grave were her eyes and light was there,

"Is love then not a human thing

Beautiful, divine and fair?"

After a moment the man replied,

"Love from the human to the Divine

Is highest of all but love descried

In darkest haunts is still the sign

By which this woeful world can change.

Love is the heart-beat and the song,

But love must not by man derange

Itself to lust that lingers long

Within our depths disguised in ways

The vital foe in us delights,

The sordid force that knowing preys

Upon the weaknesses of nights

And surfaces to soil our days.

Love at its height embraces all

Lifts the shades on evil's plays

And resurrects us from the Fall.

Give my child your love to men

For in your eyes I see Her face,

The One refound in life again

Who sheds on all Her love and grace.