Love · Love Dotes on Our Attention

We Say It Like We Mean It

By Dave Tebo · January 2024

A cornerstone of Positive Love Poetry: love as something we proactively invite, not passively mourn. Dave paints Love crouching at the starting line, waiting through arguments and distraction until we smile and beckon it forward with open arms.

The imagery is deliberately concrete. You can see the starting line, feel the patience, hear "I love you" repeated until love decides to stay. This is celebration and choice, not complaint.

After all is said and done, Love gives us what’s fair- sometimes we think it’s being malicious or hurtful, but our feeling only comes from someone being mean or ignoring Love and its need to have room to grow. Love patiently crouches at the starting line; if we ignore it, and never fire the gun, it waits. If we argue with our lover, it waits until we are done. All that Love asks, is for us to be proactive and give Potential its due. Love is tentative until we smile and beckon, “Come into my arms and let me hug you tightly.” Love labors under some of the things that we naturally expect: distraction, vengeance, sadness, nonchalance. We stay focused, and we learn to say “I love you” until Love decides to stay.

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