A Poem for a Thursday #189

Neil Gaiman is an English author of novels, comic books, graphic novels, nonfiction, films, and poetry. I have never read his books but they seem to mostly have some fantasy/magical element to them. That is not the type of book that appeals to me but I do love this poem that I stumbled across the other day.

On an unrelated note, I have been having ongoing trouble with the service that sends my blog update emails. I finally got it fixed today but quite a number of posts never got sent out. So, if you want to go back and read my poor, neglected posts of the past couple of weeks that would be great.

This is everything I have to tell
you about love: nothing.
This is everything I've learned
about marriage: nothing.

Only that the world out there is
complicated,
and there are beasts in the
night, and delight and pain,
and the only thing that makes
it okay, sometimes,
is to reach out a hand in the
darkness and find another
hand to squeeze,
and not to be alone.

It's not the kisses, or never just
the kisses: it's what they mean.
Somebody's got your back.
Somebody knows your worst
self and somehow doesn't want
to rescue you
or send for the army to rescue 
them.

It's not two broken halves
becoming one.
It's the light from a distant
lighthouse bringing you both
safely home
because home is wherever you
are both together.

So this is everything I have to 
tell you about love and 
marriage: nothing,
like a book without pages or a 
forest without trees.

Because there are things you
cannot know before you
experience them.
Because no study can prepare 
you for the joys or the trials.
Because nobody else's love,
nobody else's marriage, is like
yours,
and it's a road you can only
learn by walking it,
a dance you cannot be taught,
a song that did not exist before 
you began, together, to sing.

And because in the darkness
you will reach out a hand,
not knowing for certain if 
someone else is even there.
And your hands will meet,
and then neither of you will
ever need to be alone again.

And that's all I know about 
love.

All I know About Love
Neil Gaiman