'How Do I Love Thee--Let Me Count The Ways'

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
I love you like something I always wanted but never thought I deserved
I love you like every prayer I ever said but didn’t think was heard
Like every last song and every first word

Because loving you is being kind to myself
And being with you is sweet isolation
I need you the way I need to wake up to sunrises every late morning in Entebbe

Because meeting you at every end of your road
Is my great honor
Finding you at every latitude and longitude where you finally land after those long journeys
Is my great privilege

I love you for every smile, every tear, every hope, every wish
I love you because your poles attract mine so strongly
I have to sail with the current or be pulled apart

I love you for all my old gods, childish prayers and girlhood altars
I love you for the way I grow in your presence to the person I was always meant to be