Love has many hues

Noni at 'Peacock Blue' posted a beautiful poem by e e cummings for St Valentine's Day.
It reminded me of a poem written during the Second World War by Leo Marks, an English cryptographer with the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It has the feeling of a love poem but is called 'Code Poem for the French Resistance' and was given to Violette Szabo GC, MBE (1921-1945) a young SOE operative. It is thought that he wrote it originally for his girlfriend Ruth Hambro who died in an air crash in Canada.

Code Poem for the French Resistance

The life that I have is all that I have,

And the life that I have is yours.

The love that I have of the life that I have

Is yours and yours and yours.

 

A sleep I shall have

A rest I shall have,

Yet death will be but a pause,

For the peace of my years in the long green grass

Will be yours and yours and yours.

Leo Marks (1920-2001)

It is a poignant poem, even without knowing the circumstances surrounding its use.