Not I But Love Remembers
By John Herlihy

I
I am happy to say I have loved,
I once lay contentedly in the sun, a warm stone,
Even if now I am lying there, as alone as a bone,
Bleached by the sun and whittled by the sand,
Crows watch from the picket fence along the strand.
The sun makes shine on my balding head,
For that I wear a hat from sunrise until bed.
Never to have loved would be a sad confession;
Miserable the person who never gives themselves away;
They will walk a lonely road as they lead themselves astray.
Never to have offered oneself up to another,
To be mother, father, sister, brother and lover.
Love is an emotion that speaks without uttering a word;
Love is an inner melody that is easily recognized and heard;

II
As I say, I am happy to confess I have not loved in vain,
Even if push comes to shove, I forget love’s true pain.
I cannot remember what it means to fall head over heals;
I cannot seem to recreate how the emotion actually feels.
Love resembles a piece of cloth woven without any seams;
All the love poems may as well be lost in shredded reams.
Love is an experience that cannot be fully remembered,
It is like forgetting, something vital is inevitably surrendered.
Love is a mutual bond in the present moment,
A surrendering that cannot be surrendered to any other moment.
It’s like falling down into a hole and never landing,
A sweet falling that feels like bliss forever expanding.
Love is a force that raises us up and sets us down;
Love will remember us when we are under the ground.

III
Love burns like a fire in paradise;
It blazes and flickers and flares.
It warms the heart that once felt like ice;
My troubles mean nothing when someone cares.
Yes, my heart once smoldered;
I do not remember the reason why.
It is enough that it existed and filled the moment,
When I trusted there was no need to say goodbye.
After all, love’s trust makes for a compelling bond,
That takes us by the hand into the beyond,
Into an eternal moment that never takes its leave,
With no need to dread its passing, no need to bereave.

IV
Our love came unexpectedly,
Like raindrops that fell from the sky.
It fell onto a shaking leaf tenuously,
Waiting anxiously in the sun to dry.
Many years went by in an instant,
Falling in love seemed faded and distant,
My true love continued to thrive,
As long as we were able to survive.
Our love continued to prosper and grow,
No matter what we remember or forget.
Our love is a candle that burns with a solitary flame,
No matter what we treasure or regret.
As a senile old man, I may die at sunset;
My spirit will just drift away without feeling upset.
But our love will always remember and never forget,
An emotion that lives forever with no sense of debt.