! ! This Life Is 'On Approval' Poem by Michael Shepherd

Is ‘approve’ another word for ‘love’?
So that, when we say ‘I love you! ’ there’s the sense,
‘It’s good – I’m glad – that you are in this world! –
that you exist! ’ – so that, to love, becomes
an act of will; creative affirmation?

The sense of holiness; and music; sunlight; lemon curd –
from these, ‘approval’ stretches out a list
that may be boundless, as it sings them into praise;

approving even dreams into reality:
as if to kneel, self to self, with God
and, eye to eye, both say, ‘I’m glad that you exist..’

*

[leaning gratefully on the writings of Josef Pieper]