A Young Girl Asks Poem by Richard (Narad) Eggenberger

A Young Girl Asks

"What is this love that all men seek
For I am not aware of it.
Tell me if you know and speak
That I may with its light be lit
And all my being feel its glow."
The man, though hesitant, replied,
"I knew a love that widened so
It lifted me, she lately died.
I found a love where in the East
The sun turns black the whitened skin.
She whom I met my soul released
And counseled me to look within.
Love is not found in outward things,
Escapes the clutch of every hand,
True love a deeper silence brings,
Allows the mind to understand
Surrender as the greatest love,
Or we may say it is to give,
To consecrate all that we have;
Through love we then begin to live."
The child then asked the following,
Grave were her eyes and light was there,
"Is love then not a human thing
Beautiful, divine and fair? "
After a moment the man replied,
"Love from the human to the Divine
Is highest of all but love descried
In darkest haunts is still the sign
By which this woeful world can change.
Love is the heart-beat and the song,
But love must not by man derange
Itself to lust that lingers long
Within our depths disguised in ways
The vital foe in us delights,
The sordid force that knowing preys
Upon the weaknesses of nights
And surfaces to soil our days.
Love at its height embraces all
Lifts the shades on evil's plays
And resurrects us from the Fall.
Give your love to God and men
For in your eyes I see Her face,
The One refound in life again
Who sheds on all Her love and grace.