The Many Ways of Love

Out of the bright moonlight
in a quiet night by the river
along the mountain ridges
of an old Indian spiritual place
I came to realize that love
has its many ways...

Listening is also loving
especially when one listens
with a heart to what a friend
really needs, not what one thinks
the friend might need.

Understanding is another way
when I can put myself
in the very shoes and heart
of the one I love,
I can get a glimpse of true love.

Giving of myself is also love's way
my time, my energy and my very self
a joyful gift of love
for the beloved
without any tag price.

Maybe one that is often forgotten
is just being - the way of presence
even in silence, unspoken language
it is still love, it is still real
the in between spaces of stillness.

Or an absence, which makes the heart
grown fonder as the wisdom of the ages
again and again reminds us
for the love to true must endure
some form of not being there.

Finally, I may say
Love to be love must offer
some act of martyrdom
some witness of sacrifice of self
for the beloved - love's highest way!