In Which I Try to Cultivate Poetry Readers

First, love changes us. Then, time changes love. 

Together we read "Come with me and be my love,"

written long ago by a passionate shepherd. 

What is the narrator's point of view?

We talk about the ways love changes us, 

makes us see more clearly, 

and how it can make us see what isn't there. 

Then we turn the page and read the nymph's reply.

What adjectives describe this narrator's point of view? 

Let's go to the white board 

and write those words down. We talk about how time changes love.

Now, let's compare the two points of view in the two poems.

What do they learn What do they remember?

Will they remember any of this?

Or will they have to live this truth first, before they remember?

First, love changes us. Then, time changes love.

I'm part of a network of bloggers called "The High Calling."  We reflect on the various ways Christ's presence makes a difference in their lives. My poem is in response to a writing prompt from that site: Write a poem about cultivation. When I talk about cultivation, I mean agriculture but also creativity and culture itself. I am talking about the little place in your world where you have been given a small plot to grow new things and add to the beauty of God's world.