Redemptive Love (Poem) with Afterword and Predecessor poem.

redemptive love
by Tim Kavi

when I walked the dusty
roads in the back roads
of time
and faraway lands

I went there looking
for you
but you were not seen
O goddess

when I was hungering
for you
the woods and the hills
echoed with your
love

calling me
You were calling me
but you were not yet found

in that hallowed ground

there was wind
called thundering love
that led to lust

there was the sprinkling
of gardens
that collapsed
and turned to dust

and then there was YOU
in the clearing just
ahead

I saw you

it was YOU
and your redemptive love.

Afterword: this poem is about the search for love. In the purest sense love is redemptive in this poem because the implications are that the narrator in the poem is lost without it, was searching for it, and now, it has been found (again). It is redemptive in every sense, and yes a redemptive love is possible! Redemption means or implies a finding or bringing back, a refinding, or repurchasing value in something. In this poem the narrator was lost without it and finds it again. In this poem the narrator also finds a definite person--a YOU--that could be a physical person or a Divine figure. The first stanza is also a definite reference to an earlier poem I write. That earlier poem was written at a time in a faraway city where I personally had lost a love and was very lonely, yet this poem reveals the narrator is not alone anymore and indeed feels love's redemptive qualities...(the earlier predecessor poem is reprinted below)--T.K.

Long Highways
by Tim Kavi

long highways
bending
in the distance
disappear
from sight

these are
the moments
of my life
in the
approaching
white light

candles
flicker and die
the room
is dark
where I
dream still

soft thoughts
of a sweet
knowing
life's lessons
triumphant
in the face
of lovebeams will

lead me to the next life.