An Excerpt from Great Occasions: Readings for the Celebration of Birth, Coming-of-Age, Marriage, and Death by Carl Seaburg

In this collection of 650 readings, Carl Seaburg has gathered material for use at birth, coming-of-age, marriage, and death rituals. Here is a poem on what love is.

Love Is
by May Swenson

Love is
a rain of diamonds
in the mind

the soul's fruit
sliced in two

a dark spring
loosed at the lips of light

under-earth waters
unlocked from their lurking
to sparkle in a crevice
parted by the sun

a temple
not of stone but cloud

beyond the heart's roar
and all violence

outside the anvil-stunned domain
unfrenzied space

between the grains of change
blue permanence

one short step
to the good ground

the bite into bread again