Point, counterpoint

After that really uplifting post on Wednesday, I come back now with words that appeared in my inbox this morning. From today's Writer's Almanac, the amazing Allen Ginsberg explains how love has weight too. That's a good thing to remember, isn't it? What interesting synchronicities life puts in our path.

I heard Mr. Ginsberg do a reading once at Michigan, lo these many years ago and I treasure that I had the opportunity to even be in the same room with him. Granted, it was Hill Auditorium and he was a small speck on the stage from my vantage point in the balcony, but still his presence was palpable.

Song
by Allen Ginsberg

The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction

the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.

Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human—

looks out of the heart
burning with purity-
for the burden of life
is love,
but we carry the weight
wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
at last,
must rest in the arms
of love.

No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love—
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
—cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:

the weight is too heavy

—must give
for no return
as thought
is given
in solitude
in all the excellence
of its excess.

The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye—

yes, yes,
that's what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born.