by Alan Altany

Love is a fully faceted thing
bearing uplifting magnetism
between steadfast friends,
an uncompromised affection
coloring life’s heart-scape
with always new memories
of undiluted truth-telling
trust deep as wise-blood.
Through tears & laughter
through silence & songs
through resilient faces
facing sublime friendship,
all is well, all will be well
through necessary pain
& a trace of the eternal
in life-longing endurance.
Friends now forever
with spirited empathy
knowing full well
their shared beauty.

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Alan Altany has BA & MA degrees in Catholic theology, and a Ph. D. in religious studies (University of Pittsburgh). After an academic career, he is a semi-retired, septuagenarian professor of Comparative Religions at a small college in Florida. In the past he has also been the founder & editor of a small magazine of poetry (The Beggar’s Bowl), a high school teacher, factory and lawn maintenance worker, hotel clerk, novelist, delivery truck driver, etc. He has published three books of poetry in a series, “Christian Poetry of the Sacred”: A Beautiful Absurdity (2022), The Greatest Longing (2023), and Intimations (2024). His poetry has been published by Tipton Poetry Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Valley Voices, Sand Hill Literary Magazine, The Hong Kong Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Montreal Review, and others. He writes with the steadfast support of his golden retriever, Zeke.