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7/7/2014

Three poems you shouldn’t read

These are poems I created for Marcee, with the dates, in chronological order. All of them were written under duress, meaning I needed to have a gift for her, and these were the best I had. They always express me, but don’t really speak to feelings I had for her, certainly not at the time of writing. I wrote them to “my love” because I did not feel these things for her, but for what I hoped she was to me, even knowing that she was not. She never appreciated them, but I know you will. So I give them to you, now.

10/16/08 – We had just started dating. She asked if I would write her a poem while she was away on business.

The Promised Sonnet

Of all the poetry my heart intends —

the honeyed words, all lush and sickly sweet —

there is some part of me that still forfends.

Mere letters seem and unctuous deceit.

 

And no such half-willed effort you deserve.

Feign I duplicitously win your heart,

so full and true my eagerness to serve

when we remain some miles and days apart.

 

No, words cannot be my sole gift to you,

though what more I can bring you may be hid

from me. My own self-doubting would eschew

all but a petaled flower on your lids.

 

Since I would feign my words offend you much

Perhaps you’d settle for a simple touch?

 

07/17/2012 – or somewhere thereabouts, when she complained I did not get her flowers.

 

A Sonnet Rather Than Flowers

My love, no long-stemmed rose is she, that langours,

trapped in glass, nor could she grow in gardens

green, amongst the crimson blooms of anger.

Her love is more than color, more than ardent,

 

more than soft-spun gold of wanton promise

and stands alone within its solitary,

perfect luminescence, spectrum-less

to worthy eye alone is seen, and nary

 

leaving trace to any sense, yet constant

as the earth itself beneath my feet,

which threats to sublimate at any instant

if a kiss from her sweet lips it might entreat.

 

When love is light and moves the earth as hers,

my heart’s delight and rapture it assures.

 

07/17/2013 – Our first anniversary of marriage. I wanted to do nothing, but was inspired by the idea of a “paper” anniversary.

 

To say that paper’s strength is fleeting

and but a year to celebrate it is enough

is to forget the weave of wood the lies beneath

and ties together so many strands of life

 

Gold is malleable and silver can be shaped

even diamonds, under pressure, can be made fragile

but paper is binding in its fragility

and paper can hold the words my heart cannot

 

Paper lacks blemish, like the blank page,

an unexpected adventure

 

and paper can ignite

like my soul when I hear your voice

when I am weary, far away

 

Paper presents a gift

Paper births plays and poetry

 

So, when they say

our love has turned to paper

rejoice that it is new and light

 

and still so much remains to be written

 

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