Some Words on Love

This thing we do as authors is a gift. Truly I’m so wonderfully fortunate not only to live this dream but to be able to write about human beings and their relationships and connection to each other. I am, at heart, a sucker for love. Not that love doesn’t take hard work to sustain, it does, but it’s worth it. So I thought I’d share some of my favorite quotes about love - yannow, to share it with you. 

And now you’re mine. Rest with your dream in my dream.
Love and pain and work should all sleep, now.
The night turns on its invisible wheels,
and you are pure beside me as a sleeping amber.

Sonnet LXXXI by Pablo Neruda

I love Pablo Neruda’s poems. They’re beautiful, aching, vivid, tragic, lush - all the things a poem should be. I don’t read a lot of love poems or poetry in general but this is one I come back to time and again (and that’s just the opening stanza, there are more and I highly recommend you checking him out!)

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect…

EM Forster

I love Forster so very much.

Another poet I love is Mary Oliver - if you haven’t read her poem Wild Geese,  you should, it’s one of the most moving poems I’ve ever read! 

To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

from Blackwater Woods 

 

Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real

Iris Murdoch

 

Love isn’t a decision. It’s a feeling. If we could decide who we loved, it would be much simpler, but much less magical.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone (yes, this is a South Park quote, I love it!)

 

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

James Baldwin

 

Ama me fideliter! Fidem meam noto: De corde totaliter Et ex mente tota, Sum presentialiter Absens in remota.”
Lat: “Love me faithfully!/See how I am faithful:/With all my heart/And all my soul/I am with you/Though I am far away.”
Carl Orff, Carmina Burana, “Omnia Sol Temperat”

So what about you all? Do you have any favorite quotes, poems or songs about love?

Tell you what, I’ve got a release coming out from Samhain on March 4, the last book in this particular Cascadia Wolves story arc - Standoff. Wanna win an ARC? I’ll choose a winner at random on Saturday, March 1 at noon my time (pacific) from the folks who reply. Winners have seven days to claim the prize before I re-draw. 

THE WINNER (A LA THE RANDOMIZER) IS COMMENT #7 - LITTLE LAMB LOST  - email me with your format choice (this is a digital release) and I’ll get the book to you today! Congrats!

15 Responses to “Some Words on Love”

1. I’m not a huge poetry fan, but one of my favorite moments in a romance novel happens when the hero from Karen Robards’ One Summer recites a poem to the heroine. I think it was “My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns. Let me give you a sample:

   O my luve is like a red, red rose
   That’s newly sprung in June;
   O my luve’s like the melodie
   That’s sweetly played in tune.
   As fair art thou, my bonny lass,
   So deep in luve am I;
   And I will luve thee still, my dear,
   Till a’ the seas gang dry.
   Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
   And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
   I will luve thee still, my dear,
   While the sands o’ life shall run.
   And fare thee weel, my only love,
   And fare thee weel, awhile!
   And I will come again, my love
   Though it were ten thousand mile.

   by Jill Sorenson on February 29th, 2008 at 9:21 am
   
   

2. I have alwys like the simple about: If you love something set it free and if loves you it will come back. Or something like that. I think it really strike true.

   by Rebekah on February 29th, 2008 at 9:29 am
   
   

3. Hi Lauren,
   I’m actually not the biggest Shakespeare fan, but i love Sonnet 116. “…Love is not love/ Which alters when it alteration finds,/ Or bends with the remover to remove:/ O no! it is an ever-fixed mark…”
   Congrats on the new release!

   by JSL on February 29th, 2008 at 10:59 am
   
   

4. Great quotes, Lauren. I love this series and can’t wait to get my paws on Standoff.

   by Cathy M on February 29th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
   
   

5. Hmm…I was never a big fan of “love poems”. I actually like the silly like Lewis Carrol’s Jaberwocky. As for love songs, I AM a big sap. Play me a good love song and I’ll cry, seriously. Even the cheesy one from The Bodyguard, “I Will Always Love You”.

   by brownone on February 29th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
   
   

6. My favorite phrase is in Latin. It is “Amor Vincet Omnia” which means “Love Conquers All”.

   by Cherie J on February 29th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
   
   

7. I haven’t thought of poetry in a long while. Your post reminded me exactly how beautiful and moving it can be. Will have to make time to search and peruse.

   by Little Lamb Lost on February 29th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
   
   

8. I like this from Shakespeare:

   Love asks me no questions,
   And gives me endless support

   by Jane on February 29th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
   
   

9. I’m not much into poetry, but I enjoyed these.

   Thanks for sharing!

   by Carol on February 29th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
   
   

10. I had an entire file of all the quotes I loved and then my computer died and I lost them all

    by catslady on February 29th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
    
    

11. How lovely some of those are, Lauren! Thanks for sharing them! I think the one that sticks most in my mind is the passage from 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 –

    Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
    It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
    Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
    It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
    Love never fails.

    by Fedora on February 29th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
    
    

12. i don’t really read poems and my favorite quotes tend to trend towards pithy ones. One I heard recently was some people are like slinkys not good for much but fun to throw done a set of stairs.

    by Pamk on February 29th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
    
    

13. One of my favorite love song artists is Chris DeBurgh (Lady in Red)
    But I also love….

    So Beautiful

    I’m lying here tonight thinking of the days we’ve had
    Wondering if the world would be so beautiful
    If I had not looked into your eyes
    How did you know that I’ve been waiting?
    I never knew the world would be so beautiful at all;
    I’m spending all the days dreaming of the nights we’ve had
    I never knew that love would be a miracle
    When I think of all the ones before
    But now that I’ve found you I am flying
    I never knew that love would be so beautiful to me
    I never knew that love would be so beautiful to me;
    And when we dance to the rhythm that is burning like a flame
    And when you touch me I can hardly move you take my breath away
    You give me all that I want to feel when we become as one
    And then you take me to the heaven of your heart;
    Did nobody ever tell you you’re the best thing that has ever been;
    Ah … you … ah … so beautiful … ah … so beautiful …
    I’m standing here tonight thinking of the time we’ll have
    I never knew that you would be so beautiful
    From the day you came into my life
    I just want to say you make me happy
    I never knew that you would be so beautiful to me
    I never knew that you would be so beautiful to me;
    So beautiful to me …
    So beautiful to me …
    So beautiful to me …
    … to me;
    I’m lying here tonight
    I’m dreaming here tonight
    I dance with you tonight …

    Another one of my favorite Love Songs is John Denver’s - For You- Lyrics

    Just to look in your eyes again, just to lay in your arms.
    Just to be the first one always there for you.
    Just to live in your laughter, just to sing in your heart.
    Just to be every one of your dreams come true.
    Just to sit by your window, just to touch in the night. Just to offer a prayer each day for you.
    Just to long for your kisses, just to dream of your sighs.
    Just to know that I’d give my life for you.
    For you, all the rest of my life, for you, all the rest of my life, for you alone, only for you.

    Just to wake up each morning, just to have you by my side.
    Just to know that you’re never really far away.
    Just a reason for living, just to say I adore. Just to know that you’re here in my heart to stay.
    For you, all the rest of my life, for you, all the rest of my life, for you alone, only for you.
    Just the words of a love song, just the beat of my heart.
    Just the pledge of my life, my love, for you.

    You never ever hear this song on the radio but it’s so beautiful. It was on several of his albums.

    I love music.

    by Laurie G on March 1st, 2008 at 4:46 am
    
    

14. Congrats, Little Lamb Lost! And thanks, Lauren, and everyone for thoughts on love!

    by Fedora on March 1st, 2008 at 9:57 pm
    
    

15. Congrats, LLL!!! How cool to win this one!

    by azteclady on March 4th, 2008 at 9:04 am