One Whole Heart...

Lovers in their brief delight
gamble both worlds away,
a century's worth of work
for one chance to surrender.

Many slow growth-stages build
to quick bursts of blossom.

A thousand half-loves
must be forsaken to take
one whole heart home.


- Rumi

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Version by Coleman Barks
"Birdsong"
Maypop, 1993