
The Real Nature Of Love By Isabella Fiske Mc Farlin
Original poem by beloved ©Ladybelle Fiske aka Isabella Fiske McFarlin 2023 , Vermont USA Voice of ©Yvonne Hofstetter , Paarl , Cape Windelands , South Africa Music : Pachelbel's Canon in D Major by Wedding Music Project
Transcript
The real nature of love.
In this moment,
As clear as still water,
I see so shiningly the ultimacy of real love.
Not clinging,
Yearning and jealousy,
Not all these disguises of self-doubt,
All the emotions we were taught to think of as love.
These seem like shoddy plastic flowers that we offer one another,
Never realising that within ourselves blooms each moment the translucent rose of that essential love which clings to nothing,
Yearns for nothing,
Feels no possessiveness or fear.
When for even one moment one feels that love,
Which,
Realising its own beauty,
Has won with that of the beloved,
Gives forth the radiance of a thousand suns,
Then to settle for anything less becomes impossible,
Letting sorrows,
Jealousies and hungers fall away from one like unneeded garments.
Then emerges into the pure and centrally ultimate love,
Which offers itself anew to each new person as a flower opens itself joyously to the sun.
This is so beautiful,
I just want to keep on recording it so that I can read it,
Which is strangely peculiar but understandable because I am in absolute love with each of Isabella's poems.
It's quite fascinating.
I read them,
I love them,
I cry and then with some magic I don't really remember them.
But then I read them again and it's all over the emotions and love.
It's amazing.
They just lift out from the paper.
I love you Isabella.
How wonderful.
Thank you for this opportunity.
I love each and every word.
What fun.
Thank you.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for being.
We love you.
Isabella sends her love as well,
But you can hear that through her poetry,
Can't you?
We love you.
You are loved.
We are the real nature of love.
Life is love.
Love is light.
We are all that.
Thank you.
Thank you,
Thank you,
Thank you.
Much love.
4.8 (56)
Recent Reviews
Isabella
October 31, 2025
Dearest Yvonne, I love you ❤️ ! Thank you so much for recording my poem, and for adding my name so people can see that I wrote it. I send you all of my love, always.🩵 ❤️ Beloved and appreciated Being, ❤️you have the world’s most exquisite voice, and, fortunately, a profound understanding of my meaning. I wrote these words when I was in my early 20s, a single mother with a little girl, Joya, whom everyone loved. Many young people at Quarry Hill loved the poem. ( Quarry Hill, an old central Vermont hill farm, re –created by my Bohemian parents in 1946 as an artists’and writers’ retreat. It later became a community, one of the largest in New England, and the oldest and largest in Vermont. The place now has an art fellowship for emerging painter & writers, bringing its purpose full circle.) Some started carrying copies of this poem in their wallets and pockets! It was popular among the young people because most were involved in multiple relationships. “Real Nature”’s theme “spoke to their condition,”as Quakers say. but it is not just about sexual love. To be honest. I was not always able to live in the light of the poem, Jealousy and fear were often present for me as I met and had relationships with young men, but having these ideals, made relationships easier for me and for others. For a while I had a group of friends who were my “water brothers” as in “Stranger in a Strange Land “ by Robert A. Heinlein. We were able to offer and share love to one another because we loved every member of the group. it was puppy love in non-monogamous relationships. Couldn’t last forever, but it was fun while it did. I’m still very close to many of the people who were in that group with me. I understand that today multiplicity is “in” in relationships again. it certainly is not always easy but it has rewards, I think. . Eventually, I met and married an astrologer and yoga teacher (who turned out to be much more to him than that), and we have had a wonderful 40+ year marriage. The poem was edited by my father, Irving Fiske, who , during the 1930s , wrote for the WPA, a government- funded program that paid writers and artists. Irving was a freelance writer who published in several prominent magazines, and a playwright. he “translated” Shakespeare’s hamlet into modern English. I believe it was the first version. In later life, he began to give talks on Eastern philosophy, and psychology, among many other things, at colleges in particularly in a storefront on E. 4th St. in the East Village in the 1960s. It was called the Gallery Gwen. Many people came to QH as a result of hearing one of Irving’s talks, some of which I sat in on and provided quotations from memory. People also came because I invited them, and my mother and brother did . I have lengthened this already long review, but I thought the listener might enjoy some of the background story. With the advent of AIDS, the multiple relationships shifted and mostly became a group of couples. I think they multiplicity was a practice run for monogamy, but both kinds of relationships have their value. Those couples, most of them, had children together. The background music, Canon in D Major, by Johann Pachelbel, is almost too well known now— played at nearly every wedding. But in the early 1970s, when I wrote the poem, the Canon was mostly known only to fans of Baroque music . At Quarry Hill, it was wildly popular. “Canon in D” seemed to us to be the the theme song of our love for one another and ourselves & our children. ❤️ Thank you dearest, most marvelous Yvonne, for making audible this philosophy of the nature of real love.. Now you & I can offer it to everyone.! ⭐️ With my love and admiration always, Ladybelle ❤️. You are a great Insight Timer teacher! Love your photo too❤️ December 19 Happy Birthday, beloved Yvonne❤️! ⭐️⭐️I just fully noticed on Christmas Eve, 2022, the way you speak with wonder, spontaneity, and tenderness until the last note of the music, making the poem come out perfectly! Thank you, O Shining Being of Unconditional Love! 💕 I see that a lot of people have left reviews and I’m grateful. Thank you, everyone!🌝 It is a great blessing to both of us to read your reviews and to bask in your kindness. Dearest Yvonne❤️, I love you eternally, and I’m so glad that you have found somebody wonderful to love. All of our love flows together. 🌹🎶🌹❤️🌹❤️🎶🐸🐸🐸🐸 Here's to you and your Brian! 🥂 🍾 And again, thank you to all the reviewers. 🌷🐌 dearest Yvonne❤️, May 4, 2023. Thank you for bringing my words and thoughts to life and giving them to everyone here. I love you very much! To everyone who listened and left a review. I’m grateful and appreciative. if you can, a donation to Yvonne would be gratefully received. I don’t take any donation money for this poem on Insight Timer, so donations go to Yvonne and her family. Thank you so much. Just knowing that people are listening is a great benediction.🧡
Linda
July 30, 2025
Lovely reading Yvonne. Love the music choice, an old favorite of mine ✨ Beautifully created Isabella. 💫
Pamela
July 27, 2025
The sweetest! Love back to you both.💕 Such a lovely poem and beautiful voice. My gratitude. 🙏
Rajendra
June 15, 2025
Beautiful recitation 😊
Iga
October 30, 2023
Such beauty! I will return to it 🙏🏽🩷✨️Thank you both🏵🌹🥰🙏🏽🌹
McKesh
April 14, 2023
Beautiful reading of a heart touching poem. Thank you 💞
Stefanie
February 24, 2023
What a beautiful insight into the true nature of love 🤍🤍🤍 read in such a magical voice ✨ thank you!
Kirsten
January 25, 2023
Absolutely gorgeous! ❤️✨🙏🏻⭐️ Thank you do much Yvonne and Isabella!
Kelly
December 15, 2022
So real, calming
Frank
December 15, 2022
Oh my goodness! I could just explode with love. How wonderful. I'm crying. That was so beautiful and so were your thoughts and comments. Thank you thank you thank you I listened again this morning, I'm crying again. I have to go make up with my wife. Thank you😁❤️❤️❤️
Giuseppe
December 15, 2022
Many tanks with love🙏❤
Xiomara
December 15, 2022
Beautiful collaboration dear Yvonne and Isabella. Thank you both for sharing your talents with us. Love you both🙏🏻🙏🏻🥰🥰💚💚⭐️⭐️😊😊
Emma
December 14, 2022
Beautiful poem, beautiful voice. Just beautiful. ❤️
Angel
December 14, 2022
Very nicely read and words of wisdom. Thank you for sharing this with Us. Your Friend Angel 🕊 😇 🙌🪶🦄🦋🙌✌💖🦄Namaste ☯️🦁🕉
Cate
December 14, 2022
Heartfelt gratitude for sharing this in such a perfect recording Yvonne 💖🕊Namaste
Claude🐘
December 14, 2022
Thank you very much Yvonne and Isabella.💜🙏💜✨✨✨✨✨🕊
