This Day of Love I Take a Vow

This day of love I take a vow
To love you well through all the days
Of long and labyrinthine ways:
But I would love you anyhow.

These words bespeak my unbent will
To love despite the passing pain,
Anger, lust, fear, silence, shame:
But without words I'd love you still.

A vow of love's the final seal
Upon an edict fully writ,
Not altering the sense of it,
Nor adding to the love we feel;

Or like an oarsman worth his weight
Upon a current swift and strong
That bears the fragile boat along
To where it meets its cherished fate.

So why a vow on Valentine?
Like any vow, to bind me to
Whatever I am bound to do:
Words that ride the wordless wind.