Gazing up this terrible mountain,
you say, love is not enough,
though when I add together
everything else
and stack it high above my head,
everything else is not enough either.

So I fall back on love,
and it nudges me
back to the task of gathering
everything I can find – a pick ax,
courage, fellow travelers –
not to stack and measure,
but to begin our ascent regardless.

———
From Hafiz, ‘The subject tonight is love’ (trans. Daniel Ladinsky).