Collection of poetry written for my wife |
Poems for My Wife Eulogy for a Muse- Painful love inspires poems But perfect love inspires men And when a man walks out into the sun He extinguishes the candle used to Light the way. And so my muse, damaged love I lay you to rest and I go To pursue a love complete, A love divine. I leave the flickering of your dim candle And bask in love’s true light, Warm myself in loves influence And shake off the cold of Loves imperfection. Goodbye to feigned love And her false expressions which bind The heart in imaginary snares. I go to deliver myself into Loves strong current and Be swept away in the enveloping Bliss of love eternal. I’ve tried to write these songs for you But found myself unable to Because these songs like leaves in tow Dance on the heart’s great river flow And like a wind-blown azure field Leaves sway, but roots are what I feel So it is to write songs to you- Deeper feeling, at the hearts root Memory can be fleeting But love lingers like salt on the tongue The crystal lost prompts the sense To want more, love more The deep under-current of memory Pulling the heart swiftly along Until love rushes and hurries And no amount of speed No distance traveled Can satiate its hunger. Joy’s great sun, by life eclipsed, Which warms the heart, oft is missed. But when woes are pushed aside Abundant light enters life And so love, when it is full, Escapes eclipse eternal. Joy’s blossoms abound in light Which shines through shadow of life When life’s moon is done away Oh! I await that blest day When our resurrected love Mirrors the light from that sun There’r certain things that men would say If they were just allowed Pure emotion, cased in words Backed by iron vows A threshold which one dare not pass Where empty words take weight And feelings fill the wordy void Words full of love and hate I lie awake in bed at night And feel my empty bed Instead of dreams, these thoughts of you Dance inside my head These waking dreams are sweeter still Than any dreamful sleep Found in nights bright Elysium While stars their watch e’er keep Across the room my eye is caught As love’s elation sinking deep, My gaze wandering, distressing thought, I cannot my eyes from her keep Oh! Obsession’s piteous grasp That steals the eyes, the mind, the heart A thousand years in seconds past As what once was becomes a part Of love, of life, lived in her eyes A waking dream; dreaming, awake When eyes synaptic, hers and mine A grand new voyage undertake Into the soul and from there hence To the hearts distant climes. Seconds Are past in those great years from whence Returning, the vision is done And we two travelers of the world Tell stories of that blessed day We shared, when we on life’s sea rolled Hurried along in love’s vast wake Deep in the soul a secret’s hidden Oh blessed eyes, that window dim That won’t betray the secret veiled Unless from the right one beheld. What is that secret ye may ask Which only one lone soul may grasp? When the right one comes to my life, Of what may he alone take sight? When I glance in thine eyes my love I see in that Elysium- A man, myself, not as I am But as I with thee shall become. And that’s the mystery of life To find the one in whose dark eyes A flash! The window’s curtain drawn The light of future breaks as dawn. As I lay next to you this afternoon And held you in my arms, Draped my arm loosely across your side, My transient heart found home in your breast. As shadows dance around a wind-blown candle I danced on the edge of sleep And in that ethereal half-waking state I drew strength from you delicate frame- Comfort for my pains of insecurities I drew from your gentle sighs. The rising and falling of your breast I felt on my chest and in my soul- Too fast to be asleep, to slow to be awake- You danced with me on the edge of sleep. I shall never truly sleep again Until you’re in my arms. The solace I once found in sleep Will be, for me, Until that day I share sleep’s Starry blanket with you once more, Only a reminder of the home I found in your breast, The dance we shared on the edge of sleep, And the loneliness of my empty bed. I think thy most endearing trait, that makes me want to be With thee for everyday, my love: that thou inspirest me To be, to act, to live my best, a whole, completed man; To take the “could” that God’s instilled and turn it into “can” And so my love, my feelings true I dare not try describe I’ll only say, when I’m with thee, I feel that I’m alive Like seeing a new life begun, or meteor showers fall, When I’m with thee, my love, my dear, I lose myself in awe Love's prayer escapes my lips and, wrapped in a sigh, drifts on the breeze, onward, carried by love to you. The supplication of the lover's heart is borne not on winds of grief- nor can the lover's need be compared to the gentle pleading of a fatherly priest. As a sinner begs for God's divine grace and sheltering presence, the lover seeks to be wrapped in the robes of his beloved icon. The lover’s piety seeks divinity which it already knows, of which it's already tasted. A lover's faith seeks not that which it has not seen- the lover's faith covets that which it hopes to see again. Do you know that I’m thinking of you? Like one who knows she’s being watched, Can you feel my thoughts caressing Your body across the miles? When I taste your lips and My memory soars up into the sky To find you Can you sense that you are loved? Your taste on my lips Drives me gently mad- Do you know my madness? I had the chance to spend a night Alone beneath the sky Away from all the city lights Far from the city’s cry This night was like others which I’d Spent gazing at the stars Which twinkle bright out where I hide From all my worldly cares But this time when my eyes caught hold Of heavens starry vault Something inside felt strange and cold Loneliness grasped my heart I thought back to the times when we Wrapped in each others arms Had laid ourselves beside a tree And gazed out at the stars And now the twinkling stars above Seemed only half so bright I felt the loneliness of love Between those points of light The darkness in between the stars Held my attention fast And mirrored from my lonely heart The echoes from our past And now I’d much prefer the stars As seen through city lights Beside our tree, you in my arms Immersed in loves delight The peacefulness of a summer afternoon of leaves fluttering in the afternoon breeze with the sun’s gentle caress they glow The breeze blown softly across my cheek echoes of your sighing breaths as we shared this afternoon together and warming ourselves in the sunlight we shared the peace of this afternoon eternal lasting peace I dreamt of you the other night And from our hilltop we took sight- The life we shared Before us bare Passed by as though in flight Then from our mountain vantage point We felt the transcendental joint Where heavens skies Our earthly lives With light and love anoint And as I woke that heavens glee, Which waking slow gives cause to flee, Did fast remain Because you lay Here in my bed with me A breeze blown soft across the cheek Her breath: the mind dim, the knees weak Become, as mem’ry an inner Darkness fills with light of her. Lost in the sensational bliss Of the breeze, the mem’ry, the hiss Of former days when love was blind With vig’rous youth, youth divine! When I walk from dark into light I get lost in o’erpowering sight And so it is when I’m with you I’m lost, unknowing what to do As I awoke this morning I made the mistake of dreaming Of you as I stirred. I lay and thought of the Tasks and chores of the day And ached to be with you, To have you here by me That I might touch your skin And delicately kiss your lips. With that yearning the importance Of the daily chores Melted away And as I drifted back into your presence Happiness filled my dreams. Like a meadow covered in snow I’m lonely without you My loneliness is serene though Beneath a sky of blue The snow’s white blanket comes alive Underneath the sun’s glow Thousands of diamonds like a fire Flash bright across the snow Years escape and I blink an eye As I wait to see you The pains of daily life all die When with you I’m renewed I wrap you in my arms And take you into my entire body I drink in your scent And when you kiss me gently I breathe in life and love, now one. I bend and drink from the water that springs From the cleft in the rocks It tastes sweet and familiar Gazing up, I look upon the looming mountains And past them, to the sun and moon Looking deep into the soul of this beautiful universe Still drinking, lapping, tasting I feel the living, vibrant shaking of the earth The soulful, gleeful quaking As control is lost and won, won and lost And all is right, as I drink from the rock The grassy fields, the looming hills All is as it should be Like water from the cleft, rushing, flowing Content and peace, harmony with this universe Are mine, ours |