Approaches to the quest for love

They love not well, who love too fiercely close
And put at risk the outcome that they crave -
One chance to pay obeisance to the rose
In cognisance of how the wise behave.

Who almost is too fair must keep apart
In shelter from an ardour that may crush
The nascent beating of a wakened heart
That yearns to burgeon but would err to rush.

With skill and care the fisherman sets sail,
Arriving safely, to the seagulls' cries;
The suitor hasty in his steps may fail
To gain full favour in his chosen eyes.

So should true love love only as is right
To dim not that which ever should burn bright.

Destiny intertwined

We ask ourselves of our ecology
How to survive upon the globe we share,
How to desvise and follow rules of play
That guarantee we meet our need to care
To keep alive our tiny dwelling place
As blue survivor in the black of space.

The hungry heart

A lady or a girl who's seeking love
May treasure this advice all else above -
Pay heed to how his manners others take
And keep your senses sharp and wits awake,
For if you find what in his nature charms
You may be glad to fold him in your arms.

Old man river

Great Mississippi, you vein of Midwest,
Born midst the mists of the lakes and the the trees,
Child of the waters of permanent birth,
Destined for stories of of legend and fame -
Giant of rivers and monarch of all.

Growing from trickle to newly a stream,
Gaining in confidence over the miles,
Constantly swelling when fed from each side,
Doubling your size once Missouri has joined,
Then heading, mightily, down to the sea,
Swinging, at last, in an arc to discharge
Into the Gulf, where your destiny's met,
Into the waters which swallow you whole,
Only, in turn, to replenish your flow,
Looping from ocean to air, to dry land,
Led by the cycles of Nature which reign,
Taking their cue from the Sun and the Moon,
Ceaselessly turning to bring you new life.

The Age of Skype

To touch the lives of one and all
With possibilities to call
Their loved ones any time of day
Without the need to book and pay
Is true achievement of a type
Unknown, until the Age of Skype.

For surely a new age has dawned
When each and every one with fond
Remembrances and wishes dear
Can mark the milestones of their year,
Preserving bonds of family
No matter where the members be,
And forging friendships over miles
By skyping one another smiles.


Alternative final couplets

So can invention work its wiles
To celebrate yet shrink the miles.

So can invention work its wiles
By skyping to surmount the miles.

So can invention work its wiles
By using Skype to bridge the miles.

Intimation

I heard a sound at night, when I awoke
Surrounded by the dark's indifference.
The sound was in a dream of  conference -
And oh! that I could know of what it spoke!

Inevitablility

What once has gone is gone,
Though day will follow day.
What is to come will come,
Though night impose its sway.

And certain is the fact
That all must keep in sight -
Time's arrow faces front
And none escapes its flight.

The road to Stonor

How charming now the Chilterns stand, replete
In summer leaf beneath a clearing sky.
The thunderstorm has left behind its mark
Along the twisting, lifting lanes tight hemmed
By fresh-cropped hedges that direct the eye
To vistas far-flung on the the sun-lit hills
Where field and park-land draw the wheeling  kites
To seek not beauty, but continued life,
While on the ground a pheasant proudly struts,
His consort, more demure, some way behind.

The road proceeds, enticing with its bends,
Showing now a tiny hamlet nestled
From the the winter winds, now an ample fold
Of land in which a gracious mansion rests,
Home to a noble family of firm
Belief  and domiciled for centuries long
That span good times, and those of darker cast
When prejudice maintained its ugly grasp
Until enlightenment undid its clasp. 

Source of constant joy

Source of constant joy and rare delight,
Staying present come the dark or light -
How you prompt heart's fancy of all kind,
Well of deep invention for the mind,
Transformer of what's daily heard and seen,
Mysterious and bounteous Hippocrene.

Night and day

Dark is the night when passion runs its course
Without evincing true attractive force.

Bright is the the day on which initial lust
Finds happy haven in a mutual trust.

Ambition

If you could know the depth to which I feel,
The tenderness with which I yearn to deal
Your every vital need attention due,
Then you would  see the length to  which I love you
As only one devoted to another
Can wish to be far dearer than a brother.
Were you to see this clear, we should begin
To forge a union stronger than mere kin.