“Morality is not about duties or ethical rules, but about stopping our ego fantasies and attending to others with love.” – Iris Murdoch

mild evil will hunt for some traction in your libido
using it to twist your capacity for loving
certain things you can only do when you’re young
other things, vital things, you can only do when you’re not
love sweeps clean all the detritus,
the crusted waste rust lining your inner caverns,
the myopia of your imagined needing
but only when you can blast it pure and white
sure, you can belabor your knack for intensity
or cleave to perceived merits of certainty-judging
but Love holds forth its shimmered query
at moments your eyes suffer no passions
‘Can you care clean enough to see thru to the Other?’
‘Can you vanish your egoity like sun thru Propensity’s mist?’

the rains will wash you gentle
if you choose the waters you most fear…
if you choose the waters you most fear…
must I be restricted to your tongue
instead of my own
when I speak you inexpressible secrets?

_______RS

Image : detail from a 1937 Georgia O’Keefe painting titled “Red flowers with hills”.

► Handy INDEX — scan through all available ||SWR|| articles