Into Their True Gentleness

Into Their True Gentleness
For Katherine Kavanagh

If love is the greatest reality,
and I believe it is,
the gentle are more real
than the violent or than
those like me who
hate violence,
long for gentleness,
but never in their own act
achieve true gentleness.

We fall in love with people
we consider gentle,
we love them violently
for their gentleness,
so violently we drive them to violence,
for our gentleness is
less real
than their breaking patience,
so falsely we accuse
them of being false.

But with any luck,
time half-opens our eyes
to at least a hundredth
part of our absurdity,
and lets them travel back
released from us,
into their true gentleness,
even with us.

Pearse Hutchinson