Only Love

What conquers evil, quenches hate?

What pales infinity above,

Beneath us, all around

Only one thing

Only love

What fights and wins with tenderness

And never fails in spite of us?

What exceeds thoughts circumference?

Only one thing

Only love

What is this thing of blood and dirt?

Unglamorous, its splattered glove

Yet yields a precious, perfect hurt?

Only one thing,

Only love

What fills lust’s futile wantonness

With promises of pain and grief?

What melts the cold and calloused heart

Dissolving chains of unbelief?

What is this thing whereby we die

Suffering its cross to prove

We cannot ever fully live

Without it; one thing

Only love

© Janet Martin

 What spurs the gardener to prune the rose

Or the farmer to till his field?

Love bears the pain because it shows

Not then, but in the yield

Image Source