Strength for Love

27 May 2026

https://poems.culturing.net/2026/05/27/strength-for-love/

Sara was not my muse for long, though she did
wake up something, inspire a desire that now
finds fruition in itself, in the fuller picture
of man as part man and part woman, part beast
and part angel, all human, flourishing here
or dying in the attempt.

---

Was Dionysus alive then too, working through
even Abraham's wife, to bring nourishment
into my bone-dry soul? She did call, and perhaps
she meant it, and I was the miserable seducer.

---

I could not have loved at that time, and I knew it,
though I did not know how to heal. With some luck
I found fountains of carnal energy, long trapped,
awaiting explosive release. Have I since found another
in the same predicament?

---

Or have I just finished my own story, using
a useful mirror to reveal to me parts of myself
still asleep? But are these parts not best left asleep?

---

They shall wake when the waking is called for
by one who is also waking, and only on these terms,
for no other terms satisfy, no other waking
is worth the trouble or free from degradation.

---

Having degraded others, was I not due
for karmic retribution? Will those who degrade me
face the same fate?

---

The slaves revolt, always, and often overcome
their masters when it's least expected. Therefore
I swear off slavery and walk free.

---

But Sara still calls out to me from the reaches
of far-off memory, one who dared love
with apparent sincerity. I was the weak one, Sara,
I was the one without strength to say yes
or to bend without breaking, to give and take.
You showed me the way.

---

Can I now show the way? I will try.
But I look once again to the broken sky
and remember my discipline. I would be strong
without love. I will not trade my strength for love.

---

Where are the lovers
who wish for my strength?
Penelope, I arrive!