Explanation Of Love

Explanation of Love

There is a place where love begins

And a place where love ends.

There is a touch of two hands that foils all dictionaries.

There is a look of eyes fierce

As a big Bethlehem open hearth furnace

Or a little green-fire acetylene torch.

There are single careless bywords portentous

As a big bend in the Mississippi River.

Hands, eyes, bywords–

Out of these love makes battlegrounds and workshops.

There is a pair of shoes love wears

And the coming is a mystery.

There is a warning love sends

And the cost of it is never written till long afterward.

There are explanations of love in all languages

And not one found wiser than this:

There is a place where love begins

And a place where love ends—

And love asks nothing.

Carl Sandburg