A Poem for A Thursday - How to Love Bronwyn

Today is our tenth wedding anniversary.

We've enjoyed ten years of love, laughter and happiness. Mr Books is a man of endless patience, with a big heart and a generous nature. Every day I am full of gratitude for our life together.

When I spotted this poem last week, I knew it would be the perfect choice to post today for A Poem for a Thursday. It's not often I find my name in a poem (or anywhere else for that matter). And when that poem also speaks to you and reflects your own truth, then you've found a winner!

Thank you Bronwyn Lovell for speaking so eloquently for the both of us.


How to Love Bronwyn
By Bronwyn Lovell | 1 February 2012 | Cordite Poetry Review


Don’t try too hard.
If it requires effort,
if it is difficult for you,
this is not for your portfolio.

It must come naturally,
like holding out your hand to test for rain,
and if you should feel something,
put away your umbrella.

Surrender to the pitter-patter
of unexpected kisses,
and if you get the urge to run
when they start to come hard and fast,

please do. This job is not for you.
I need a detective
to find the logic
behind my contradictions,

who will explain them to me patiently,
so I can come to better know myself.
I need a curator who won’t ignore
the chips and cracks,

who will study them,
run his fingers along their length –
an informed buyer
who knows the condition of his prize.

I need a break wall
to protect me from the storms
without and within myself.
Someone who will not ebb and flow,

who won’t come and go.
I need a man sure enough
of his own two feet
to anchor us both.

I am a body of water.
You need to know enough
of drowning
to know how to love me well.

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

Bronwyn is a Flinders University PhD candidate in creative writing, researching depictions of women in narratives set in space and composing a feminist science fiction verse novel.

Jennifer @Holds Upon Happiness posts a lovely Poem for a Thursday each week. I enjoy sourcing poems from my recent reads to join in with her whenever I can.