Find

I recently discovered a website called Swaptree.com where people can trade their books, CDs, and DVDs that they don't want anymore for someone else's that they do. It's awesome and I'm pretty stoked to have a new outlet for the books I read once, years ago, that are now just taking up limited bookshelf space. Now I can send them to a new home where they will be loved and in return I get not the $0.05 I would get from selling such things on Amazon.com, but a book, CD, or DVD I actually want. Awesome. (If you haven't seen this site, get on it. I'm addicted now.)

So I was trolling for books in my closet and I found a book of poetry I haven't looked at for years. I thought, sure, I can trade this for something else. But just as I was putting in the book's info on Swaptree, I noticed a few post-it bookmarks. At the first one I found this poem:

Why Do I Love You?

I love you,

Not 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 ignoring the possibilities

Of the fool in me

And for laying firm hold

Of the possibilities for good.

Why do I love you?

I love you

For closing your eyes

To the discords--

And for adding to the music in me

By worshipful listening.

I love you because you

Are helping me to make

Of the lumber of my life

Not a tavern

But a temple;

And out of the words

Of my every day

Not a reproach

But a song.

I love you

Because you have done

More than any creed

To make me happy.

You have done it

Without a word,

Without a touch,

Without a sign.

You have done it

Just by being yourself.

After all

Perhaps that is what

Love means.

--Roy Croft.

Well, then. Maybe I won't get rid of this book just yet.