Awakening II: The Poetry of Gunnar Våken

Poem: Reasons

To live is to love
And to love is to survive
There is no vibe
Without such a pool
In which to dive

Loving family
Loving friends
Loving the community
Women, children and men

Opposing enemies
And those causing harm
Fists of fury ever ready
To heed the alarm

To love is to protect
To love is to conserve
Risking to gain
And stay above the curve

Avoiding doziness
And shunning the dreary
Eyes wide open, ever vigilant
To resuscitate the weary

To love is to hurt
To love is to fret
There is no joy
Without taking
This costly bet

Giving of yourself
And that which bleeds
Your heart, your emotions
To heal pain, to meet needs

Sounds so obvious
We've heard it all before
But doing it
Actually doing this day by day
Is a nuisance neighbour
Always banging at your door

Love, love
Such a glib and overused term
But it's relevance will never fade
Yep, it's ubiquitous, like germs and sperm
It grows, it spreads, in the sun and in the shade

Love, love
Chuck it out, see it bounce back like a boomerang
It's unavoidable, it's durable
Like an annoying song you once sang
It's thought, it's action, it's verbal

~ Gunnar Våken