Classic Poem

Falling in love the first time is a dream
It's like an unanchored boat swept away at high tide:
There's no time to think or reconsider:
Venture in haste, repent at leisure.
Mud castles are not protected by walls of grit:
Before you know it the current undercuts the defences,
And in you plunge, headlong, heedless of your self.

Falling in love again and again is a recurring nightmare.
How many loves can one change?
How many false trials sustain?
Each gesture now becomes corrupt:
Hands soiled with dung, eyes degraded with lust.
You wander thirsty and starving in the howling winds
Like a lunatic lost among mirages in the desert.

But falling in love the second time is the best-
Not with anyone else, but with your first love.
That's like entering paradise with open eyes:
The gradual ascent of the sun,
The rise of nectar from the ocean,
The slow, clear, hard, and heady intoxication,
The easy sliding into throbbing ecstasy;
Ripe fruit, sweet and firm, cut cleanly, easily eaten.

[From The Serene Flame]