The art of loving might look like a bard’s
Familiar ballad, playful yet precise—
All fingers dancing, never strained by self
Or hesitation, fret to joyful fret,
A perfect, reckless, troubadour’s delight,
Like friends who wonder at the firmament’s
Vast steadiness, how it remains the same,
Yet never ceases to draw our eyes up.

But I remember on too many days
The tremor of a grip too tight, the sound
Of hollow distance, the furrow of fear.

Release and practice, practice and release—
Until the dance of my hand moves within
A Spirit wiser than my mortal reach.

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We hope you will join us in The Imaginative Conservative community. The Imaginative Conservative is an online journal for those who seek the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. We address culture, liberal learning, politics, political economy, literature, the arts and the American Republic in the tradition of Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Edmund Burke, Irving Babbitt, Wilhelm Roepke, Robert Nisbet, Richard Weaver, M.E. Bradford, Eric Voegelin, Christopher Dawson, Paul Elmer More, and other leaders of Imaginative Conservatism. Some conservatives may look at the state of Western culture and the American Republic and see a huge dark cloud which seems ready to unleash a storm that may well wash away what we most treasure of our inherited ways. Others focus on the silver lining which may be found in the next generation of traditional conservatives who have been inspired by Dr. Kirk and his like. We hope that The Imaginative Conservative answers T.S. Eliot’s call to “redeem the time, redeem the dream.” The Imaginative Conservative offers to our families, our communities, and the Republic, a conservatism of hope, grace, charity, gratitude, and prayer.

The featured image is “The Love Song” (c. 1717) by Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) and is in the public domain. It has been brightened for clarity and appears here courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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