Lovebirds

So now we see the lovebirds in their nest,

So tenderly against each other pressed,

So dreamily above the everyday,

So ready to float up and drift away.

But duty calls the wayward to obey

The stern injunctions placed on those who play

The many roles that family requires

Be acted out as history transpires.

And in the ceaseless interplay of role

And self, each mediates and renders whole

What otherwise would dissipate and fade,

And thereby finds how happiness is made.

Ardour deferred

Let us lose our lengthy days of ardour

Luxuriating in our languid love -

Or, rather, should we reign in tight the rage

Of rapture bursting to express its force?

The fauns who haunt the forest dark are fierce,

The darts from Cupid's bow are sent to pierce

The coldest heart, and order it to blaze,

As does mine now, to see your ardent gaze.

Falling Short

Was it an accident, or did you mean

To cause confusion with one carefree glance?

You opened up a place till then unseen

And underscored the vagaries of chance.

But how dare I tend to your tender heart

When to myself I am my own worse nurse?

Your welfare cannot prosper from my part

Unless you undertake to crush the curse

That, rudderless among the reefs and shoals,

I fail my proper bearing to preserve

And come to grief, as do all hasty souls

Who trust unduly and neglect reserve.

I wait reply from where my hope is fed,

For now, in essence, there is no instead.

Out of Reach

As sole purloiner of my sense of self,

You show scant interest in your precious spoils,

Instead behaving like a woodland elf

Who in a twinkling slips the serpent's coils.

Suspicion centers not on you, as thief,

But on my own naivety of thought;

In matters touching feeling and belief

Recourse to wishful thinking counts as naught.

And so I have arrived where I must be,

With clarity I see you in the end

And recognize how true you are to me -

Not criminal, but merely too kind friend.

There is no shield that can withstand the darts

Which rain from Cupid's bow to capture hearts.

Holding Hands

I feel the volume of your hand,
Its weight, both witness to the band
That binds emotion heart to heart
Which once had been spaced far apart,
But now in consort each aspire
To draw the nearer to love's fire.

Body & Soul

Should life miss the essence which defines it's state -

From lack of love, from scarcity of trust -
All efforts must be bent to counter fate:
The will asserts the apt response - adjust!

When underway, a boat obeys the chart

So not to falter, strike and run aground:
On it's own journey, each and every heart
Seeks solace and commitment where it's found.

No soul will languish long in darkness wrapped

If courage be the arbiter, and join
With faith to find, through dedication apt,
That valued state - two metals  yet one coin.

Weigh anchor, set sail with the rising sun -

The wind is fair, safe passage will be won! 

The Poet reads "Body & Soul"

The Three-fold Way

Being in love is being free
to do what, otherwise, we'd see
amounts to purest fatasy,
if not to loss of sanity.
But marriage, on the other hand,
makes up a very different strand,
in which commitment to withstand
all odds becomes the sole command.
And weddings are a joyful gate
through which the wedded blithely skate
to meet the future in a state
where each is lover to their mate.

Proof of Love II

Reticence in commitment, caution in
matters of the heart, each is your preserve.
But how can I some other way begin
to raise your trust and lessen your reserve?
I would take courage and gain heart enough
were you to recognize how I am skilled
in piloting our boat through storm and surf
to reach a haven where all doubt is stilled.
through languid days upon a tropic beach,
body at rest,the mind will turn to schemes
while swaying palms benignly view how each
with each in turn will harmonize their dreams.
If you crave evidence to prove my love,
eternity alone is time enough!

Proof of Love

You tell me that I love you with your smile
Although, to you, there's no such tale to tell.
What would I give to let you know the while
that I have spent, enamoured, in your spell!
With magic and with mystery on call, 
you bring to mind the music of the spheres
of heaven's realm, where arcane marvels all
conspire to govern more than what appears.
The harmonies your tresses wake in me
when breezes blow bring gladness out of time,
and I could wish you were disposed to see
the way in which we with each other chime.
Should you, with grace unearned, accept my love,
earth's globe, as bell, would not exult enough.

Assets in the Game of Love

With longer legs a girl of shorter height
could further go than otherwise she might.
But, then again, the long and short of it
is that the way to overcome a bit
of lousy luck is not to sulk and moan,
but pluck up courage from the truth well known
that gals whose only asset's in their sashay
lose out to those whose charm is much more classy.