All the way from Prague, my youngest daughter Anne Marie spreads the Poem Elf spirit. As you can see, she loves her adopted city; as you can’t see and wouldn’t know, she also loves the word “romantic.” (See her commentary.) We have a running family joke about an awkward card she gave me as years ago in which she wrote about our “fun romantic times together.” (She thought romantic referred to affection and snuggling.) Her understanding of the word has since righted itself, but her chosen street and poem remind me of her open heart, how much I miss her, away now for so long.
Anne Marie notes that František Halas is a Czech poet from a working class family (1901-1949). Short life. I hope he got the love he dreamed of.
Confession
by František Halas
Touched by all that love is
I draw closer toward you
Saddened by all that love is
I run from you
Surprised by all that love is
I remain alert in stillness
Hurt by all that love is
I yearn for tenderness
Defeated by all that love is
at the truthful mouth of the night
Forsaken by all that love is
I will grow toward you.
This is one of my favorite streets in Prague—it’s romantic and exciting and I can’t wait to show it to everyone I love at some point in my life. I always see couples sitting here, so I picked a love poem by a Czech poet. I can’t choose which line grabs me the most because it all rings true in a simple, retrospective way. “Surprised by all that love is I remain alert in stillness” is where I stand now, wondering who it is I’ll bring here.
I sure love this one! And I loved seeing AML’s smiling face on Sarah’s zoom graduation 😂
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Congrats to Sarah!
Loving all the poems – fun reading especially these last few months when they can take us away a little bit. Especially love this one by your sweet girl – wishing her lots of love!
Thanks for reading, Maureen! I’m sure AML will love seeing your comment