I am Selvi, co-author of this new poetry book, and I agree that love is difficult to define; different for everybody in the way it is felt and experienced; how and why you love someone, and how love is received back. What is not in doubt is the powerful influence of love as the greatest emotion for all of us that needs no definition.
We need attention; we need to be loved and feel whole and blessed. Love does all that. For me, love is to be wanted, to be the muse of a great, creative mind, to be the heroine of great films, the lead character in a writer’s novel or someone’s life; to communicate, to share smiles, to wake up in someone’s warm arms, to argue, to cry, to remain adored and still be there even after a million mistakes made and a ton of insecurities created. Love is to be home and wholesome.
Adel is different. He is a linguist who says our Stone Age ancestors viewed love as the essence of life and the proof is a single biliteral root (*LP) that became the origin of life, living, alive and love. Our hope is for readers to share with us the joy we felt along the long journey of building this book primed with fresh expression and vivid imagery combining the inaccessible understanding of the wonder and mysticism of love in both East and West.