Love

7:00 AM

Georgina Ciotti, Unknown, 2000s
LOVE
by Phillip Larkin

The difficult part of love
Is being selfish enough,
Is having the blind persistence
To upset an existence
Just for you own sake.
What cheek it must take.

And then the unselfish side -
How can you be satisfied, 
Putting someone else first
So that you come off worst?
My life is for me.
As well ignore gravity.

Still, vicious or virtuous,
Love suits most of us. 
Only the bleeder found
Selfish this wrong way round
Is ever wholly rebuffed, 
And he can get stuffed.


Editor's Note: Students were asked to pair a poem and painting with no explanation of the connection. 

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