Love's as...

LOVE'S AS WARM AS TEARS by C. S. Lewis

Love's as warm as tears,

Love is tears:

Pressure within the brain,

Tension at the throat,

Deluge, weeks of rain,

Haystacks afloat,

Featureless seas between

Hedges, where once was green

Love's as fierce as fire, 


Love is fire:

All sorts--Infernal heat

Clinkered with greed and pride, 


Lyric desire, sharp-sweet,

Laughing, even when denied, 


And that empyreal flame 


Whence all loves came. 


Love's as fresh as spring,

Love is spring:

Bird-song in the air,

Cool smells in a wood,
Whispering "Dare! Dare!"
To sap, to blood,
Telling "Ease, safety, rest,

Are good; not best."

Love's as hard as nails,
Love is nails: 


Blunt, thick, hammered through 


The medial nerves of One 

Who, having made us, knew 

The thing He had done,
Seeing (what all that is)
Our cross, and His.