On Marriage, Sex, and Love

Music: Fugue. From the Quintet in G Minor for violins, viola, cello, and piano. By Dmitri Shostakovich. Sequenced by Dmitri Bachovich, at Kunst der Fuge.

Hear me read the poem as an MP3 file. Alpha List Marriage Poems Proverbs About This Site Poems for Free Copyright by Nicholas Gordon

1. One needs always to remember that the point of marriage is not sex but love. 2. Love, like the air, is often taken for granted. But a happily married couple both know that they need love and are grateful to have it. 3. Sex brings ecstasy and then satisfaction. Love brings grace and then fulfillment. 4. One can enjoy both sex and love, but one cannot pursue both. For the pursuit of sexual ecstasy is self-centered and tends towards isolation, whereas the pursuit of love is other-centered and tends towards communion. 5. Marriage is difficult and requires constant compromise. One cannot share a life without losing autonomy, but what one gains is well worth the loss. 6. The only way to be completely autonomous is to be completely alone. Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.

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