The Leather of Love
- John Berger

Weathered as gateposts
by departures
and the white ghosts
of the gone,
wrapped in tarpaulins,
we talk of passion.
Our passion's the saline
in which hides are hung
to make from a hinge of skin
the leather of love.

DEW: I told Kathy what this meant to me, and she asked me to share my comments.

The poem is obviously describing someone with enough life experience to have their "gateposts weathered" and friends "gone". These experiences can easily become just dead "skin" if they are not cured with "saline" into leather. To cure them, you need "passion", spirit, and psychological awareness. And values that let us persevere with this sometimes difficult task of learning, communicating, and growing (thus avoiding long-simmering unspoken feuds). Kathy steers this process and makes it succeed in our family, using her values, spirit, and psychological insight and skill. To me, this poem shows Kathy's spirit that fuels our family's leather of love.

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