If We Have Love Poem by John Lars Zwerenz

IF WE HAVE LOVE

'Hath not thy nightly sweat bedewed my brow,
O lamentable friend that seek'st me now? ' - Paul Marie Verlaine

'Look upon my outstretched arms, my bride, my love,
For whom on searing wood I suffered and died.
I healed you with my gaping wounds; your flesh, your pride
Has been vanquished, and you have been freed from above
The Virgin's sobbing veil, upon a Roman tree.' -
(Such, in the night, were my Savior's words to me.)
And the moon did alight, solemn and sad,
Over my ungrateful heart which, longing to the wintry skies,
Found me consumed with a phantasm's mad,
Tattered gloom. So I ran to the brook where a seraph sighs.
And found what I asked for did not yield
When I willed it to, for I did not know
I was unprepared for the truth to show
Itself upon the snow-covered field,
Until good grace alone did glow,
According to His providence, His own good time.
Now I am grateful, and the dawn does rise,
Over the meadow, clad with the mystic rhyme
Of gladness. And the sallow reeds will reflect no demise,
For paradise doth wait beyond the grand lie
Of the shadow of the sting-less grave.
For if God is love, does He not also save?
And if we have love - we do not die.

John Lars Zwerenz