The most living moment comes when
those who love each other meet each
other's eyes and in what flows
between them. To see your face
in a crowd of others, or alone on a
frightening street, I weep for that.
Our tears improve the earth. The
time you scolded me, your gratitude,
your laughing, always your qualities
increase the soul. Seeing you is a
wine that does not muddle or numb.
We sit inside the cypress shadow
where amazement and clear thought
twine their slow growth into us.
--Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)
( a little about Rumi )

Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni is an African-American poet, activist, author, English professor and lung cancer survivor whose early poetic inspirations stemmed from and were largely about the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. The piece below is said to be from 1982.
( on Choices )