Love Is Far More Various than Race

January 23, 2020

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. The theme for this week is Nationality and Race/Lunar New Year in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, which this year is celebrated on January 20^th, and the Lunar, or Chinese New Year, which this year is celebrated on January 25^th.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com .

A poem about love and race:

Love is far more various than race.

It goes much deeper than a person's skin.

It reaches to the heart, which is the same

In all the human race. It is the name

Of a hundred thousand feelings held within,

Yearning to be consumed in an embrace.

How does one particular embrace

Become more intimate than one's own name?

How of all the humans in this race

Do we find the one whose spirit is the same?

Of course we love to touch our lover's skin,

But what love touches is the soul within.

In marriage we must build one home within

Two hearts, one world in an embrace.

What matters is the will and not the race,

The choice to love what lies beneath the skin.

In every love the choice is just the same;

Without it, love is nothing but a name.

How do we make love more than just a name?

How do we not tire of the skin

We touch every day? In the race

To succeed, how do we keep the embrace

From smothering the passion still within?

How do we make our days not all the same?

Love is the decision to embrace

One body, one soul, one universe, one name.

To give up all we are and have within

And share the world beneath another's skin.

Once we do, the world is not the same:

The love two share enriches the whole race.

This is how love intersects with race:

Humanity is held in your embrace.

Your love will never leave the world the same:

When it looks for peace, it calls your name.

Do not fear the politics of skin:

Choose love each day, and joy will reign within.

Within your love is all you need embrace.

Love caresses skin and values race.

Two in name, you are in love the same.

© by Nicholas Gordon

If you enjoyed this poem, please like, comment on, or share it so that it might be seen and enjoyed by others. To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/race.html. For more poems about nationality and race, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/racepoems.html .

This week’s theme: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday/Lunar New Year

1/20: Maybe Dreams Cannot Come True, but They

1/21: Might Not Racism Cut Both Ways

1/22: Maybe This Was Harder than I Thought

1/23: Love Is Far More Various than Race