very rarely is love and understanding not enough
still it is easy to hurt the ones we care about the most
you need to be loving and sincere but also tough

being liked and having friends does not mean much
or that when you party you can act the perfect host
very rarely is love and understanding not enough

giving those we love their freedom is always rough
we care so much but they may not feel as close
you need to be loving and sincere but also tough

it doesn’t matter if we have the coolest stuff
a gold necklace is not better than a single rose
very rarely is love and understanding not enough

don’t hide your inner feelings show your love
your lover needs the words even if they know
you need to be loving and sincere but also tough

they say relationships are heaven’s gift to us
this is clear when we find ourselves alone
very rarely is love and understanding not enough
you need to be loving and sincere but also tough

_Leif lives in McCauley. You can visit his website at _ www.edmontonwriter.com

*A villanelle is a 19-line poem with two rhymes, five tercets (three lines of poetry forming a stanza), (four lines forming a stanza). The first and third lines of the opening tercet recur alternately at the end of the other tercets and both are repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.