Where Defenses Fall

Do not pursue what runs away,

For love will never come that way,

It waits behind the walls you’ve made,

In shadows where your fears are laid.

It cannot live in chains of will,

It moves unbidden, wild, and still,

It breathes when silence grants it room,

It grows where guarded hearts break gloom.

The hand that clutches leaves it bare,

The hand that opens finds it there,

It lingers not, where whirlwinds reign,

But settles where the soul is plain.

It enters where defenses fall,

The weakest place becomes its hall,

It makes its home where shadows part,

And builds a temple in the heart.

So clear the stones you’ve stacked in dread,

Release the words you left unsaid,

For love is not a prize to win, 

It enters only if let in.

Cathrine Hottran 2025