A Love Poem

Updated: Loving You, originally uploaded by desireux.

If thou must love me, let it be for naught
Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
'I love her for her smile--her look--her way
Of speaking gently,--for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed or change for thee--and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

I love reading these 'messages' inside bottle caps, fortune cookies, and labels. This love poem was inside the wrapper of a bar of yummy chilies & cherries dark chocolate. One very sweet present I received once was a bottle of 365 notes, one to open each day. It was so much fun to open and I would even bring some along with me if I had to be out of town so that i wouldn't miss a day.