When I first read Kahlil Gibran’s famous love poem many years ago it resonated so much with me that I immediately learnt it by heart. The American-Lebanese artist, writer and poet who died in 1931, aged only 48, had described, in the most beautiful way imaginable, what I had believed to be the ideal relationship between a man and a woman, whether as a married couple or as lovers.

It is an ideal built upon a paradox: a perfect union achievable only if each remained fiercely individualistic, a merging of selves only if each self insisted on being on its own. When I came upon Kahlil Gibran’s poem, I was absolutely thrilled because these thoughts, which I could only express in the most prosaic way, were suddenly decked out in the most resplendent poetic garments, bearing the lovely colours of both our earthbound domesticities and our soaring dreams:

*.. let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of heaven dance between you, Love one another but make not a bond of love, Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup; Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf; Sing and dance together and be joyous, but each of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone, Though they quiver to the same music.*

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About Vignettes...

A continuing flow of little, readable pieces that will constitute what I feel is an important 'legacy of values' to leave behind. Read more about Vignettes...