Real love is free from expectations,
not insisting that anyone we love,
love us back, yet we all demand
That right, creating unhappiness,
others can only give what they are
able to, not what we request
Love rejoices in a gentle, guarded
unfolding revealed in soft,
wondrous disclosure
Based on belief and trust, giving all
while hoping to produce love in the
beloved person
Freedom from disillusionment lies in
demanding love from ourselves only,
freely spreading kindness
Leo Buscaglia ‘Love’ Souvenir Press 1984
p.66,67
A Mentally Retarded Eel 4.
Something unique determines how you
project in this world, how you alone see
it, but we’re dropping uniqueness by not
persuading people to discover and
develop it
Education should help everyone discover
their uniqueness and teach how to develop
and share it - the only reason for having
anything – we should be saying show
me your difference
I will learn from it, but we try to make
everyone like everybody else - as in
Animal School, a rabbit, bird, squirrel,
fish and eel wrote a curriculum for digging,
running, flying, swimming and climbing
Insisting ALL animals take ALL subjects,
the rabbit got brain-damaged from tree-
climbing and stopped running, the bird
broke his wings by digging and stopped
flying, while class valedictorian was
A mentally retarded eel who did everything
half-way – a broad-based education we
force on our kids just as it was forced on
us, to this day I can’t do arithmetic,
never mastered knitting
For that reason I was deemed brain -
damaged also, but I held onto my
tree, going into dreaming…
Leo Buscaglia “Love” Souvenir Press 1984
pp.9,10,11
A Flame Of Delight 3.
Buscaglia tells how to reinforce
gorgeous, tender, loving human
beings: Care about yourself, all is
filtered through you, the greater
you are, the more
You have to give, with greater
understanding, you can become
the most fantastic, beautiful,
wondrous, tender person
there is
With a mind so big, it is filled with
exciting dreams; we are so much
less than what we are - desire to
grow by directing your power at
growing, feeling, touching
And smelling, leaving no boring
second; technological life is very
boring to me because my senses
are never required to touch, feel,
smell and hear
Only my eyes look at pictures and
words, searching the most beautiful
to convey wondrous ideas with
rhythm and melody, never seeking
negative descriptions
Buscaglia ignited a flame of delight
in me; I continue the process of
becoming devotedly…
Leo Buscaglia “Love” Souvenir Press 1984
pp.8-9
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem