Poem

I'm currently working on a poem called "Bomber" which contains the line "my heart is a suicide bomber." The poem is about love, which I never write about because my own experience of love is so different from the trite love poetry you so often hear or read. I think true love, contrary to the storybook endings and romances of Hollywood, is a cycle of violence and repair. If you're in a relationship with someone long enough, either you do them violence or they do you violence, and it requires repair to maintain the relationship.

On the other hand, some relationships have only the violence of neglect. I think sometimes neglected or stagnating relationships need a good prairie burn or forest fire to clear out all the junk that's accumulated beneath the trees and give them a chance to grow again.

I've seen both of these instances in my own marriage, my friendships, my family. My mom's cancer was the best thing that ever happened to my parents' marriage, in my opinion. It doesn't get any more violent than that, but there was some crap that needed clearing out.

In either case, true love requires pain, it requires a certain violence to stay alive.

If you want love that lasts, be ready for violence that burns.


Check out my new article on enoch.com called "The Problem of Pain" here

Slam video of the day-- this guy is AWESOME!