Self Cannot Love...

PAD's two-for-two Tuesday challenge is to write a love or anti-love poem. 

We have a way of getting in the perfect way of it

Self is a bossy darling looking out for number one

But if we should decide to not ‘seek our own’ a bit

Then we should be prepared and plan to change our plans often

‘Love does not seek its own’ nor groans as it unclenches fists

Its utter selflessness baffles the best of us at times

Self does not go gentle into the good night's purple mists

But oft resists the hills that love insists its servant climbs

Oh Love, how do I love thee, let me count the countless ways

Ah no, for self is dumb-struck by your keen, relentless proof

And blushes ‘neath the honesty of Thy unjudging gaze

As love forgives the shortcomings where Self would stand aloof

Self cannot love in, of itself, or thus forgive the same

Love is divine, its very nature God Himself revealed

Self is a beggar dependent upon Love’s Sacred Name

By which all men are saved and every Self-affliction healed

© Janet Martin