“Love You Like”

By Theodore Richards

for Ari

i love you like
periwinkle african skies, equatorial dusk
calliopeian songs
& mangoes from african trees
like nighttime skies over the desert of wadi rum
& tibet
orion doing cartwheels across the firmament
i love you like bahian breakfast & waterfalls
cliffs to dive into clear water
& empty beaches (in places where portuguese would be spoken if anyone else were there)
from sitio do conde to beira
i love you like i like to write things
& start philosophical arguments
like i like hard questions
& big stories
i love you like i like wine
& kids who make pretty patterns on scan-tron sheets
like i like dante’s paradiso & cinema paradiso
i love you like i like road trips to mexico
chased by hurricanes
chasing our future
together
like i like tostones from the chinese restaurant in washington heights
like warm new york nights
& sunny san francisco days
like i like camping in the redwoods
& campfires
i love you like the paintings at altamira:
handprints on the womb of the earth
dance of prey & predator
like barcelona’s tiki-taka
(& the knicks)
i love you like the carolina mountains
that you taught me to love.
& i love you like i used to like blunted lakefront afternoons
& winedrenched poetry-filled evenings at 54th & woodlawn
where a dreadlocked b-girl smiled at me across our front porch
(i remember)
& i am still smiling

3-10-13

About The Author

Theodore Richards
Theodore Richards is an educator, writer, and philosopher. He is the founder of The Chicago Wisdom Project and editor of the online magazine and podcast ReImagining. His work is dedicated to re-imagining education and creating new narratives about our place in the world. He has received degrees from various institutions, including the University of Chicago and The California Institute of Integral Studies, but has learned just as much studying the martial art of Bagua; teaching in various settings and students; and as a traveler from the Far East to the Middle East, from southern Africa to the South Pacific. He is the author of eight books and numerous literary awards, including two Nautilus Book Awards and three Independent Publisher Awards. His latest book, Reimagining the Classroom, launched in December of 2022. He lives on the south side of Chicago with his wife and three daughters. For more information, go to www.theodorerichards.com.

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