Poem for the Day
In my opinion the most beautiful, perfect love poem ever written.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

from Sonnets from the Portuguese 43: How Do I Love Thee
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Poem for the Day
A poem that will always be in my top three of favourite poems. Welsh poet and clergyman R S Thomas wrote this beautifully poignant poem after the death of his wife. To refer to a fifty year marriage as 'love's moment' is the most tender tribute to the quality of their relationship. It will break your heart. 

We met
under a shower
of bird-notes.
Fifty years passed,
love's moment
in a world in
servitude to time.
She was young;
I kissed with my eyes
closed and opened
them on her wrinkles.
`Come,' said death,
choosing her as his
partner for
the last dance, And she,
who in life
had done everything
with a bird's grace,
opened her bill now
for the shedding
of one sigh no
heavier than a feather. 

A Marriage 
R S Thomas