Embrace

My friends 

you have both

been given the same gift

an insatiable love of life 

it is your best quality 

after the laughter in your eyes

after your sweet mockery

it is 

as if you are saying

every hour we must embrace the world 

we must give ourselves over 

to the love of living 

to our river of unbearable delight

and let it sweep us away

somewhere downstream

we are laughing like children 

sunburnt, water-logged

exhausted from screaming with joy

in the shallows where the dulcet waves 

sing to us beneath clouds as soft 

as the breast of the Wild Mother 

under the green leaves 

where the moss 

gives under our feet 

I have come home to my heart 

and the weight of the world

is lifted from me 

and if we fall into each other’s arms 

as if we had been lost to one another

and then miraculously brought

back together

what is more innocent 

than the affection of our kinship.