Although I wouldn’t consider myself a romantic, there are a few love poems that I read often because they evoke feelings of love. I initially was going to pick my favorite to write about, but I just couldn’t narrow it down to one. Instead, I’m posting my top three.

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
I go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

-ee cummings

I read this poem back in high school and heard it again in the movie In Her Shoes. I immediately remembered how touching I thought it was even at the age 17. The best part was realizing from the movie that it speaks not only significant others, but to anyone who holds a special place in your life.

Because She Would Ask Me Why I Loved Her

If questioning would make us wise
No eyes would ever gaze in eyes;
If all our tale were told in speech
No mouths would wander each to each.
Were spirits free from mortal mesh
And love not bound in hearts of flesh
No aching breasts would yearn to meet
And find their ecstasy complete.
For who is there that lives and knows
The secret powers by which he grows?
Were knowledge all, what were our need
To thrill and faint and sweetly bleed?
Then seek not, sweet, the “If” and “Why”
I love you now until I die.
For I must love because I live
And life in me is what you give.

-Christopher Brennan

This poem almost explains to me why we love. It’s the many circumstances of life that bring us to love and then we need it to live. A simple, yet profound explanation.

The Life That I Have

The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours

The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

-Leo Marks

This is the poem made more famous by Chelsea Clinton’s wedding. As soon as I read it, it had the effect of “’nuff said” and for someone as verbose as me, those reactions are few and far between.

Do you have any poems that you hold dear to your heart?

For me, one of the best parts about being a first generation (1.5 by some accounts) immigrant is that I am able to objectively look at the positive and negative aspects of both my cultures. By recognizing something doesn’t work well in one, I don’t feel at all as though I am rejecting it – just making the best of it. The issue at hand: secrecy.

With all that’s going on in the global economy, my daughter’s private school has also fallen victim. As I’ve mentioned, it is a French immersion program and also teaches a bit of Spanish.

The school is run by someone I think is also a first generation Haitian immigrant. In our culture, you NEVER air your dirty laundry. However, I feel to best adapt to the American culture, you have to learn to separate family laundry and business laundry.

Basically, the school is in serious financial trouble and we, the parents, weren’t informed until quite late in the game. At that point, many parents felt that there was not enough transparency with the school’s administration and wanted a lot more information before doing anything. What we received in response was the financial projections for the next school year .

So, I may be reaching, but I think that the principal considers the school’s woes to be her dirty laundry. The thought of giving its patrons, the parents, an inside look to what may be happening seems to be uncomfortable. In turn, we feel uncomfortable providing additional financial support.

Do you have similar norms in your culture and have you experienced something similar? How did you handle the situation?

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