Friday, February 12, 2010

Love is a Mystery. In more ways than one...

Roy Croft seems to be an enigma. No one knows who he is (or was). Yet his poem, Love, shared with you today in honor of Valentine's Day, has been used in innumerable wedding and commitment ceremonies. Maybe if we continue to share the poem, someone will be able to solve the mystery.

When asked about it, researcher Ted Nesbitt wrote in one website that he found a collection of Croft's poems published by Blue Mountain Press in the late 1970s. Some of you may recall Blue Mountain for it's pretty - but schmaltzy -cards and chap books. It started as a vanity press which meant Croft might have paid to have his booklet published. I found his poem, however, in a collection I own that is copyrighted 1936: The Best Loved Poems of the American People selected by Hazel Felleman.

Felleman acknowledges permissions from various poets and publishing houses for the verses she selected but not, (guess who?) Roy Croft, mystery poet. So, was Croft's poem written long before that? Was it already in the public domain as of 1936? I hope someone knows the answer. While we wait, here's the poem:

LOVE

I love you,
Note only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you ,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak thngs
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Withoug a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.

Roy Croft

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I wish you all that kind of love.

Mur


This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by: I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read? http://www.leewind.org/

4 comments:

Lee Wind, M.Ed. said...

This is really beautiful. Thanks for sharing, and for being part of the Poetry Friday party!
Namaste,
Lee

Mary Lee said...

Lovely!

Andrea Murphy said...

Happy Valentine's Day to you, too, Mur. And to all the rest of the Write Sisters for that matter!

I'm Jet . . . said...

Oh, Mur. Thanks for posting that lovely, lovely poem. I hope you had a great V day . . .

Jet