Fear and Love

FEAR and LOVE

Fear has no place

In a heart that loves

It may try to make a nest 

of tightly woven rigid thoughts

Pointy, piercing, rough

That threatens to crack open and destroy

The life it tries to hold

It may even call itself love

to convince you

That it's controlling ways

Will keep you safe.

Love is not the safe nest

Built with no holes

To glimpse the sky 

It is a gentle hold

Loosely woven 

With fine silt hands.

It is the free flight

And the celebratory chirp

Fledglings flying the path

Lit with the colors 

Of their own wings.

Love is the infinite yes

To what a beloved desires,

And an infinite no to fear.

Fear has no place

except teaching us 

to let go again,

and again, 

and again.

-Artemis Mandala