A Love Story

How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old grief, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Your face is true and your hair is perfect and I love you...
Your fears unnerve me and your questions amuse me and I love you...
I love you not only for who you are, but for the interesting person I become when I am with you.
I say I love you until the words become the constant song of your voice in my head and the original ache of memory in my soul.
I love you more than life and death, more than everything that's in between the light and the dark. Do you believe me?
I'm always with you, which is why I know you will never abandon yourself.

By Nicole Orozco written to my husband Charles.

The poem When you are old by William Butler Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

William Butler Yeats