How easy love when loved one loves one back,
when words and gestures warming onward go
and daily interactions have the knack
of humbly helping hope and faith to grow.

Uneasy is the love when silence rules,
when earnest speech and reaching out rebounds
and ever may be unreflecting pools
of needs unknown and cries without known sounds.

How difficult when one cannot believe,
when all affection seems a tangling web
and stressful signs of trying to relieve
distress shout courage will remain at ebb.

Yet when the last good-bye indeed is last,
may nothing needed be unsaid, unasked.

- Robert Stone, 5 December 2010