I Love You
I love you for what you are,
but I love you
yet more for what you are going to be.
I love you not so much for
your realities as
for your ideals. I pray for your
desires that
they may be great, rather
than for your
satisfactions, which may be so
hazardously little.
A satisfied flower is one whose petals
are about to fall.
The most beautiful rose is one hardly
more than a bud
wherein the pangs and ecstacies
of desire
are working for
larger and finer growth.
Not always shall you be what
you are now.
You are going forward toward
something great.
I am on the way with you and
therefore I love you.
Carl Sandburg