I love you

I love you…
not only for what you are
but for what i am
when i am with you

i love you
not only for what
you have made of yourself
but for what
you are making of me

i love you because
you are helping me to make
of the lumber of my life
not a tavern
but a temple of
my everyday, not a reproach
but a song

i love you
for the part of me
that you bring out

i love you
for putting your hand
into my heaped-up heart
and passing over
all those foolish weak things
that you can not help
dimly seing there
and for drawing out
into the light
all the beautiful belongings
that no one else has hooked
quite far enough to find

i love you
because you have done
more than any creed
could have done
to make me good
and more than any fate
could have done
to make me happy

you have done it,
without a touch
without a word
without a sign
you have done it
by being yourself

perhaps that is what
being a friend
means after all.