A Love Villanelle

THE BOND OF LOVE IS NOT DESIRE, BUT NEED

The bond of love is not desire, but need.
Desire fades; need with wisdom grows:
The need to be needed, and the need to need.
But why the need to need when one is freed
By needing less of that which comes and goes?
The bond of love is not desire, but need.

And why need to be needed? Why should one cede
What one might well enjoy for what one owes?
The need to be needed, and the need to need

Are longings of the sower for the seed,
And the seed for the sower, who whistles as he sows.
The bond of love is not desire, but need.

Love is longing, by dint of death decreed,
The beauty and the terror life bestows,
The need to be needed, and the need to need

Embedded in one's being, as indeed,
Being needs Creation, which it once chose.
The bond of love is not desire, but need:
The need to be needed, and the need to need.

Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. The poem appears on the Web site Poems for Free (www.poemsforfree.com) under "Love" (www.poemsforfree.com/lovepoems.html) at www.poemsforfree.com/thebon.html. love poetry