“”To be Love” is nirvana” — I want to wear this broach of a mantra today and every day. Looking into this poem for me is like bending over the still water pond and seeing myself. That’s the best way I can express how I understand what this writing says to me. All lines point to your phrase “To be Love” is nirvana…” and the period at the end of the message = “But it is never dead.”. For me, it means the love of ‘that particular love attachment’ dies INTO the love of a different attachment, even if it is the attachment to ‘living’ or the attachment to ‘trying to live’ and then it ‘continues’ somewhere beyond this paradigm. Wonderful examples of “riveting the eyes” and “fresh breath of a newborn” and how powerful the boldness of pen writes “shattering disagreements”. Your talent in putting blood on the page and putting lipstick, amaretto and tears and mustard and coffee stains on the page…..is profound, Odin. Your work is like opening the morning drapes and never knowing what will be seen out that window. Just right — djl

An interesting, exploratory take on the mystery of love, there // not there; she loves me // she loves me not. The human experience is fraught with confusion, emotion, contradiction. That's what makes love so special. Thought-provoking.