by Christopher Walsh
(notes for poem begun 2/12/2017, poem written 3/5/2017-3/12/2017)
You get a grip on another life:
Their warmth can touch to yours,
Each person's arms, each person's cores
Can be, when hugged, energy-rife:
You draw a strength and borrow more
That — first — brings your shields down
But this is why hugs have renown:
Those strengths entwine, grow past your core
As if gaining the power of a crown.
Your shields now encompass you both.
You two are protected. The hug is an oath.
...And isn't it now harder to frown?
Your strength, more centered, feels growth;
You sense that you're where you belong
— If you feel worse once you've hugged, something's wrong —
The bond is worth a pledge, a troth
To return your strength once it's passed along
Through clothes and skin and muscles, gripped
And warmed through body heat: you're more equipped,
After absorbing the hug, to find how to be strong.
The feel of the hug is chosen by the huggers: slipped
Easily into a space emotionally colored as desired:
How much a hold? How deeply held? How much time transpired?
What might the hug lead to? Does it lead to a heart-skipped
Joy that your hug will become a more-than-hug? Acquired:
Love, and intimacy, once you've found the right person
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