Gate C22

A ‘Reading for Wellbeing’ recommended read!

Gate C22 by Ellen Bass (from The human line by Ellen Bass)

This is my favourite love poem, it is just beautiful! It is so human and incredibly touching.  It’s set at a gate in an airport, and describes a couple having a long, passionate kiss.  I love the fact that the man and woman in the poem are so everyday and ‘ordinary’:

‘Neither of them was young. His beard was gray.
She carried a few extra pounds you could imagine
her saying she had to lose’

There is something so wonderful about seeing people in love, especially older people, and this poem really captures that.  This section in particular is so poignant:

‘But the best part was his face. When he drew back
and looked at her, his smile soft with wonder, almost
as though he were a mother still open from giving birth’

This poem always makes me feel wonderful.

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