I just had this awesome post pointed out to me by Penelope Trunk: Date a Girl Who Reads. Here’s an excerpt…

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Full text here.

To go along with it, a short poem I wrote when I was a teenager and had not yet ever fallen in love.

Give me passion, give me desperation,

give me a soft hug

or a hard kiss

but nothing in between

I’ll be torn

and caressed

But I don’t want to be held

simply because a boy

is supposed to

put his arms

around a girl

It’ll keep her from being sad

It’ll keep her from being happy.

Hope you are all having a wonderful end of January, and let’s be grateful for the next month that lies ahead of us. February is full of promise and hope and things that we might yet do if we do not give into fear.