only love can save from diminishment

I come to the fear of love 

as I have often come, 

to what must be desired 

and to what must be done. 

 

Only love can quiet the fear 

of love, and only love can save 

from diminishment the love 

that we must lose to have. 

 

We stand as in an open field, 

blossom, leaf, and stem, 

rooted and shaken in our day,

heads nodding in the wind.

[Wendell Berry {1934- } 'The Fear of Love', from Collected Poems 1957-1982]