Flying home

Very likely she has always understood
what I have slowly learned...
that love is hard,
that while many good things are easy, true love is not,
because love is first of all a power,
its own power,
which continually must make its way forward, from night
into day, from transcending union
always forward into difficult day.

And as the plane descends, it comes to me...
that once the lover recognizes the other,
knows for the first time
what is most to be valued in another,
from then on, love is very much like courage,
perhaps it is courage, and even
perhaps
only courage.

--Galway Kinnell, from Mortal Acts, Mortal Words