Latest / Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast / Love Is Not Strength

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Love Is Not Strength · Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: You are listening to the Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Please visit online at backwardmutters.substack.com.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: There you can subscribe via your favorite podcast player and read the newsletter.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Randy Edwards.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Today's poem is a poem inspired by 1 Corinthians 13.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was written during a season when,
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: after attempts to love and minister to others,
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: the love was not enough to change the course of the circumstances that were playing out.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: The poem's title and theme was born out of the sadness that love does not leverage
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: an advantage over others or circumstances.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: It isn't that love isn't strong, but it has no coercive power.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Love leaves you vulnerable to pain and exposed to wounding.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: The poem's titled, Love Is Not Strength.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Love is not strength, though it is patient and kind.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Not that it doesn't desire or burn hot as fire, yet it does not quit.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: It takes a seat to the side, and there it will sit through time's tides and troubles.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: It does what it can, and with you stands ready to help, paying no mind to impatient demands.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: love does not shine it does not put me first or over others climb or grab with
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: greed yelling mine mine mine love cannot keep you from grief it only makes the
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: sadness more certain only makes the inevitable hurting of goodbye sure
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Love cannot keep others from leaving, it cannot make them stay.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Love is not enough to keep any from going away, it cannot keep.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: But of those wrongs,
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: the slights,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: the thoughtless words said in jest,
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: the deeds that were nothing near the best one could be,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Love keeps no record of the wrongs, whether they happen today or time long since gone.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Love cannot heal.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: It cannot make anyone well.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: If they are sick and dying, it's not like some spell that can magically make them right.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: Though, if you love, love just may keep you awake night after night after night.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Love makes no demand.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: It does not have to have its say, which means that things may not go your way.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so, love oftentimes weeps or grieves what it may not keep.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Love takes no delight in the cruel or the wicked things others say or do,
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: but love rejoices in the true,
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: and when seeing the truth,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: love bears all things,
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: and in so doing carries the weight of waiting for the other to come round,
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: or for the time when what was lost is at last found.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Love cannot keep, make, or do, yet it believes all things, which means he still believes in you.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, love may be blind.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: It cannot see the hope who hopes for what they can see,
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: but with hope in faith,
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: love looks down the drive,
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: expecting any moment to see you.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: you who were thought to be dead alive, walking up to the house.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Love is not strength,
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: though it endures all things,
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: whether fearing the grave or the pain of death's sting,
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: love never fails,
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: is on time,
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: never late,
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: for it always hopes,
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  SPEAKER_00: always trusts.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And waits.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And waits.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And waits.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: You've been listening to the Backward Mudder's Poetry Podcast.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Randy Edwards.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.