The Great Lover

            © Greg Ferrell

Today is St.Valentine's Day, the day to celebrate Love.

Love expands the heart, as the poet Rupert Brooke knew full well:

I have been so great a lover: filled my days

So proudly with the splendour of Love's praise,

 . . ..

  

These I have loved:

White plates and cups, clean-gleaming,

Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, faery dust;

Wet roofs, beneath the lamp-light; the strong crust

Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food;

Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood;

And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;

And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,

Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon;

Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon

Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss

Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is

Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen

Unpassioned beauty of a great machine;

The benison of hot water; furs to touch;

The good smell of old clothes; and other such—

The comfortable smell of friendly fingers,

Hair's fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers

About dead leaves and last year's ferns.... 

                                    Dear names,

And thousand others throng to me! Royal flames;

Sweet water's dimpling laugh from tap or spring;

Holes in the ground; and voices that do sing:

Voices in laughter, too; and body's pain,

Soon turned to peace; and the deep-panting train;

Firm sands; the little dulling edge of foam

That browns and dwindles as the wave goes home;

And washen stones, gay for an hour; the cold

Graveness of iron; moist black earthen mould;

Sleep; and high places; footprints in the dew;

And oaks; and brown horse-chestnuts, glossy-new;

And new-peeled sticks; and shining pools on grass;—

                            All these have been my loves. 

A litany of little things that, if attended to and thus appreciated, provide daily blessings.

We draw to ourselves the goodness of all that we appreciate.

Luke 12:34— "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Don't give your heart away to unworthy things.  

Colossians 3:1— "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your hearts on things above."

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