Love is a verb (repost)
As I was walking down the street the other day, I noticed the following sentence written on the sidewalk in big white block letters:
LOVE IS A VERB.
That made me smile and think yes, yes it is.
Yes, it is also a noun: deep affection. But, for that phrase to actually have more substance than the breath you expel upon saying I love you, there must be actions to give it weight. To give it meaning. Love cannot live in words alone if they are not to fade away to nothingness, or worse, twist and rot in the absence of actions or in the face of actions that put lie to the words.
What those actions might be, that demonstrate that love, are myriad and multitudinous...and quite personal to each individual.
For me, it is bear hugs. It's the words said every day, multiple times a day. It is standing on the porch waving as a loved one drives away. It's baking someone's favorite dessert, preparing homecooked meals. It's listening, accepting those you love as they are while encouraging them, supporting them to be their best selves. It's compromising. It's remembering things that are important to your loved one. Doing things for and with your loved one.
Sometimes it's sacrificing - time, energy, money, sleep for your loved one.
Nurtured, it will grow and strengthen. Blossom. Evolve.
Limited to words belied by actions - or inaction, it ceases to be love.
A muted tone, a fade to a hum. Prose. Radio’s Number 56 and Mavia.
Mavia sent in number 56, which features two writers and her signature sound.
Stay awhile, have a drink...
Here's the link to the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk0jDiU7WBw
And we'll link the authors below in the comments.
And.
As always.
Thank you for being here.
-The Prose. team
Ghost
my husband and I joke
that I'm not really
living this life right now
I'm not really
a wife and dog mom
in a deluxe house and town
I'm back in Berkeley
the place where we first met
where I spent the early stages
of the pandemic
I'm in lockdown
that has gone on
for four years without pause
my dog Ernest is a rabid raccoon
that I pet and have become sick from
my California house
and our vacations
are a calendar of images
I hang in up my closet
stroking each picture
I am talking to myself
convinced I've survived
when I'm only insane,
diseased, a ghost with nothing
tangible to touch
Faith / Fear
Scratching my brain, tickling every cell,
Run around playing a game, wondering where it'll lead, heaven or hell.
Snatching glimpses and stares, here, there,
Modern thoughts turn to warfare.
Conflict and resolution on the mind,
Heart and soul combined.
Intertwining limiting beliefs with self esteem,
Left, right and in between, broadcasts mainstreamed.
Pulsating shockwaves all around,
Questions the theory of lost souls waiting to be found?
Intuition swirls in pools of friction,
Hidden or buried expectations come to fruition.
Live for every moment, every thought & emotion,
For thoughts create reality, indulgently potent.
Laugh along the journey, good & bad,
For without embracing wrath, there would be no divine path.
Sick in bed
When you said that should we never touch again
You would still come around
I was not so much surprised at this saying
But I stared amazed
At how much I believed
In you and in
This, and at how I had good reason to
As I leaned into you leaning
On the kitchen sink
Each little light on in your parents’ house
I recall nights the moonbeams hit
Your eyes just right
And made me want to seep into your bones
And I remember, too
Days you wiped my snot with your hand
And clutched me to your chest
I blubbered and scratched
And you cried I love you I love you Grace
You are an unmade bed
Tousled & still warm, and I
Fully intend to return to you
Sick in bed
When you said that should we never touch again
You would still come around
I was not so much surprised at this saying
But I stared amazed
At how much I believed
In you and in
This, and at how I had good reason to
As I leaned into you leaning
On the kitchen sink
Each little light on in your parents’ house
I recall nights the moonbeams hit
Your eyes just right
And made me want to seep into your bones
And I remember, too
Days you wiped my snot with your hand
And clutched me to your chest
I blubbered and scratched
And you cried I love you I love you Grace
You are an unmade bed
Tousled & still warm, and I
Fully intend to return to you
I Never Should Have Loved You
I never should have loved you
I know that now
for even then I saw
good-bye in your eyes.
You were so innocent, so naive..,
You were everything I thought
I ever needed to see.
I never should have loved you
you never really knew me.
Mama told you what to believe,
Papa called you a fool
to love a dreamer, an artist,
A man who lived only
by his own rules.
I never should have loved
you but your tears blinded me.
I thought you understood.
Instead you slipped thru my fingers.
You offered me a dagger
and then cut into my soul.
I was young when I met you
but our good-bye had turned me so old.
Now, if ever I think of you
I whisper to myself
I never should have loved you,
you were only fool's gold.
From an intro inspired by Tears for Fears, into a moonlit buzz of wonder, and then on to two new bloods that absolutely steal the show with their words to ride shotgun across the moon so graceful, into a summer to greet the juxtapostion of death against dread.
Here's the link to Prose. Radio's Episode 55.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZo89vojB_E
And here are the requested pieces featured.
https://www.theprose.com/post/822872/time-too-short
https://www.theprose.com/post/823028/a-summer-passes
And.
As always.
Thank you for being here.
-The Prose team
Childhood Memories
when you said all men are bad
did you think that, maybe
you always picked bad men
scumbags, losers, creeps
guys you thought you could change
with your unrealized superpowers
but when you met that smart guy
who liked movies, who talked about them
who didn't need any changing
you didn't like him at all
and when you said a man's thing looks terrible
did you think that, maybe
you didn't need to say that to me
and when i was 15 and dropped out
and you said you wished i'd just
find a girl and settle down
did you think that, maybe...
oh mom, when you said these things
to me, your son
when i was just a kid
what the fuck were you thinking