There’s no place more intimate than two souls entwined in love, to the point where one gives his or her all to the other in their hour of greatest need. Here are two pieces of reflections on this ennobling theme.

I SING (by John Rybicki)

I sing to keep
the embers in the night sky alive –
those sparks God tows
out of my love’s chest each night.
I sing from the
crown of her stubbed head
to the arch of her foot
where I’d kiss and kiss her
till she said,
Dude, rub in the love like you do.

If love could grant me one wish,
it would be this:
I would bloom
and take Julie inside me,
keep her safe,
leave one lantern rocking
in the night sky over her head
where God’s heart should be.

John Rybicki is a poet and author of When All the World is Old, Lookout Books (University of North Carolina, Wilmington, 2012). The Julie in the poem is Julie Mould, his wife, who at the age of 29, was diagnosed with cancer, just five years after they got married. She was cared for by her husband, and a team of caregivers for sixteen years before she passed on. This poem is John baring his soul in the way he knows best, through words raw, yet graceful, authentic and wise.

The next piece is a short video clip from the fabulour HUMAN project by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, an environmentalist, activist, journalist and photographer.