The Divine Light of Love

Recently, knowing of my passion for poetry, my nephew and his intended bride invited me to share in their celebration of love by composing and reciting an original poem about Love and Marriage. It was a wonderful gesture on their part to acknowledge my poetic inclinations, and to invite me to perform an original work as part of their wedding ceremony, but in a deeper sense, to be recognized as someone who knew enough about the subject to be included in such an important moment in their lives was a great honor, and I enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to do so.

When asked to compose this poem for the celebration, I couldn’t help but wonder if anything truly original would arrive on the page. Humans have been expressing the notions and emotions of love since the very first words of human language were born. Ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and Persian poets were scribbling thoughts of love into poetry thousands of years ago. On the other hand, I did have some experience in the subject. Growing up, I was blessed to have parents whose mutual love and unwavering commitment to each other was perhaps the best example anyone could hope for, of what a marriage should be. My wife and I raised a family of six children, and over the years have experienced a pretty full range of the emotions and trials that can come in marriage. We have been blessed so far with five grandchildren and I felt like I could compose something worthwhile. As a philosopher and a poet, I agreed immediately. But it didn’t come easily.

Philosophers and poets through the ages have struggled to reach into the depths of the human soul, where love originates, especially the deeply rich and vibrant kind of love that was evident in the faces of these two young souls as they prepared to embark on the journey of a lifetime. If you would ask them, I think most poets would tell you, that the most direct path to the depths of our souls, to the spirit of life, is in the unconditional opening of ourselves to another.

These two souls bravely embarked on the journey toward the spirit of life, and stated their intention to lovingly and unconditionally open to each other. The image above was presented to me as a gift at Christmas this year, and it clearly shows the unmitigated joy of the moment, and the promise of the life and love to come. For them to succeed, it seemed to me, they would need more than just an appropriate and enthusiastic rendering of an original poem. They would also need our unconditional support and love, as well as the guidance that can only come from the divine source of all life.

In honor of the occasion, I presented to them, and now to my readers here, this expression of the experience of that source, which I entitled, “The Divine Light of Love.”

The Divine Light of Love

As the sun slowly exhales and sinks
Behind its sleepy, late day horizon,
Two hearts, two souls, two destinies-
Keep their appointment with the season of joining,
And merge with the tentative light
Seeping out over the lip of the evening sky,
Bathing each of the two, who were once asunder,
With the hopes and fears, joys and tears,
Storms and serenity, of a oneness yet to be.

Whispers of thoughts in contemplation of doubt,
Evaporate as harmony of the heart takes them in its tender grasp.
Each moment in time, each pulse of affection,
Each crystal of love’s ancient, eternal memory
Now floats past their mind’s eyes
Like specs of dust dancing in sunbeams,
Lingering just long enough to invite their gaze,
Before trailing off into obscurity, invisible,
Never again to be repeated in exactly the same way.

Divine light, we are told, is the source of such thoughts;
Their living, breathing, part or parcel of God;
Illuminating their hearts desires, and revealing their lives,
As branches on the tree of life.

There is no wisdom path they can see;
No obvious highway begins at the tree.
The path leading forward, now hidden, is dark,
But the light that will guide them has detected their spark.

The heavenly hosts, how they sing, how they sigh;
The angels have taken again to the sky.
Their probing and beautiful showers divine
Send streams of ambiguous, bittersweet wine.

There are many among us today who shed tears,
For we know and have traveled love’s pathways for years.
While we knew on our journey bitter droplets of pain,
Today tears of joy wet our faces like rain.

So now as these lovers seek the solace of love,
They ask every blessing and hope from above;
Their souls, steeped in hunger; their roots have been shaken-
God sent them each other, their hearts to awaken.

There’s nothing to do-let the story unfold.
For Natalia and Stephen, this day is pure gold.
All we can do is embrace them and pray,
That the divine light of love will be with them each day.