0251 To Jerry Hughes At 75 Poem by Michael Shepherd

Love is life. Life is love.
Everything I understand,
I understand only because
I love.

Everything is,
everything exists
only because
I love.

Everything is united by
love alone.

Love is God
and to die means
that I, a particle of love,
shall return to Love itself, whole and complete,
the eternal source of Love itself.

*

Did that fiery pacifist, that Pacific warrior,
that defender of the loving heart,
Jerry Hughes, write this? No,
it was Tolstoy, the writer of 'War and Peace', but
you two have much in common
and I salute you for everything
that you are and stand for.