What Is Love? Poem by Madeleine Wolf

You ask me
What is love?
Confusedly.

I reply to you
Love is blue,
Love is red.
Love is the voice
Inside your head.

You wonder
Is that it?
I say
Not one bit.

Love is the heat
And love is the cold.
Love is hesitation
And being bold.

Love is confusion
Full of pleasure
And pain.
Love is passion
And disconnection.

Love is life
And love is death.
Love is amazing
Like eternity’s breath.

Love is confidence,
And incompetence.

Love is gruesome,
Love is wholesome.
Love is give
And take some.

Love is responsibility,
And irresponsibility.
Love is feeling sympathy
And pity.

Love is a two-way street
On which many obstacles you’ll meet.
Love is the high road
And the heavy load.
Love is genius
And don’t know.

Love is simple
Sometimes mental.
Love is a combination
Of objects and chemicals.

Love is yearning
And love is burning.
Love is sensational
And can make you feel ill.

Love is a revolution
Of the heart.
Love is something that can glue you together
Or tear you apart.

Love is feel
And love is real.
Love is fake
And becoming wide awake.

You say
“I never knew love was so many things.”
I say “It is that and so much more.”

Love is opening your eyes
For the first time.
Love is rich
Worth much more than a dime.

Love is a guise
For the foolish
And the wise.

Love is seeking
Sometimes never finding.
Love is caring
And never minding.

Love is grinning
And wanting to cry.
Love is winning
And losing ‘til you sigh.

Love is asking “Why? ”
And “How? ”
Love is then, here,
And now.