WordsOut poems by Godfrey Rust  | collection Welcome To The Real World ← 3 of 59 → | home           

Welcome to the real world

I’m beginning to understand.
I saw a sign once
outside a church. It said
Are you really living
or just walking around
to save the expense of a funeral? 

I didn’t know
that Love is real life,
and everything else
just a more or less entertaining way
of dying. 

And I didn’t know
that Love is like nothing on earth. 

Love isn’t what you fall in.
It’s what pulls you out
of what you fall in. 

Love isn’t a good feeling.
Love is doing good
when you’re feeling bad. 

Love means hanging in
when everyone else
shrugs their shoulders
and goes off to McDonalds. 

Love means taking the knocks
and coming back
to try to make things better. 

Love hurts.
It’s its way of telling you
that you’re alive. 

And the funny thing is that after all
Love does feel good.
People say Love is weak.
But Love is tougher than Hate.
Hating’s easy.
Most of us have a gift for it. 

But Love counts to ten
while Hate slams the door.
Love says you
where Hate says me. 

Love is the strongest weapon
known to mankind.
Other weapons blow people up.
Only Love puts them back together again. 

And everything that seems real,
that looks smart,
that feels good,
has a sell-by date.
But Love has no sell-by date.
Love is Long Life.
Love is the ultimate preservative. 

I don’t know too much about Love
but I know a man who does,
up there on the cross
he Loves us to death. 

Love is the key
to the door of the place
he’s prepared for you
in the kingdom of God. 

If you’re beginning to understand
then welcome to the real world.

Written for the event Welcome to the Real World at St Johns, West Ealing in 1993.