We Have Not Long to Love

We have not long to love. 
Light does not stay. 
The tender things are those 
we fold away. 
Coarse fabrics are the ones 
for common wear. 
In silence I have watched you 
comb your hair. 
Intimate the silence, 
dim and warm. 
I could but did not, reach 
to touch your arm. 
I could, but do not, break 
that which is still. 
(Almost the faintest whisper 
would be shrill.) 
So moments pass as though 
they wished to stay. 
We have not long to love. 
A night. A day.... 

- Tennessee Williams

The world

The world is violent and mercurial--
it will have its way with you. 
We are saved only by love--
love for each other 
and the love that we pour into the art 
we feel compelled to share: 
being a parent; being a writer; 
being a painter; being a friend. 
We live in a perpetually burning building, 
and what we must save from it, all the time, is love.

- Tennessee Williams