Love Poems

. Avalon This little tale concerns a man, Who in an English village ran A thriving little corner shop, Supplying shakes and soda pop. This fellow did his best to try, His customers to satisfy, As in his shop, they waited while, He took their money with a smile. One...

. An Appeal I want to be a fiber on your loom, A constant fixture in your living room, A luscious morsel that you save for last. It's time for us to build a solid past, If only to secure a firm foundation Where we can play it loose and...

. Ageless Not in the golden mists of memory Nor in the colder mists of future years Shall I find love as true as yours for me--- A love so fair it banishes all fears. Your eyes, like sunlight, ever faithful gaze On all we’ve built and are. No clouds...

. The Ballad of Mrs. Pam Able Mrs. Pam Able was very unstable, And loved to be tied to her dining-room table. Her friends were appalled, many names she was called, For her fatal attraction for men who were bald. One day after yoga, still wearing her toga, She spotted...

. Could it be Love? a pantoum My wits are kissed. Could it be love? My brain is drained of all but you. I’m cuckoo as a cooing dove. I have an over-rosy view. My brain is drained of all but you. A giggle tickles tipsy lips. I have an...

. The Shadow of My Sorrow As soon as day has dawned and night is done, The shadow of my sorrow follows me, Outgrows the shape by which it came to be, Consuming it when night is new begun; And being my likeness, how can I outrun My other self,...

. Disemboguement You woke something deep within me, not at first sight, but the second: When distractions ceased to spin me, my eyes focused; your eyes beckoned--- sheer perfection then I reckoned you to be, and this not idly, but explosively and widely; __doubt and reservation crumbled in a heap....

. Love and Loss: Poems for Viktoria Sokoli . Love I I once loved a girl called Viktoria Sokoli With eyes of the colour of spinach and broccoli. Her skin was as soft and as smooth as a peach; Her breasts left me utterly robbed of all speech. Her thighs...

. To an Eager Lover This isn’t an unreasonable demand: you have to learn my story with your hands. As a man, you naturally want to know a woman in the way you know the world: from start to finish, everything in a row. But knowledge isn’t wisdom; in my...

. Antietam It was the bloodbath battle of the Civil War; Scores of men died, by musket, the gore; Was this brave dead soldier from north or from south, Left on the field, blood gushed from his mouth; He had a young sweetheart, love oozed from her breast, But he...

. I Met a Shepherdess  by Guido Cavalcanti (c. 1250-1300) translated by Joseph S. Salemi I met a shepherdess in a small copse. More beautiful than starlight, the girl seemed. Her hair was blonde-ish, with a swirl of curls. Eyes full of love, and face-blush like a rose, She guided...

. Xi When Xerxes saw his bridge of boats which spanned The Hellespont destroyed, forthwith he laid Fetters of iron on the waves and flayed With whips the surf which had him dared withstand. So Gaius, too, seeing Britannia’s land Beyond his dreams of conquest, sent his hordes To stab...

. ---To My Beloved Husband Our married love is no ethereal sound Which dies away when wedding bells cease tolling: No idle lust for courting or cajoling Which dissipates, its petty joys once crowned; Nor yet a chain to keep the body bound, Inured in stagnant care and yearly foaling:...

. Arrival of Spring Each wing delivers news of a young earth: The nightingale, the end of moonless woes, The dove, the peace of melting mountain snows, The hummingbird, a lightness dense with mirth. The goldfinch tells the sun what joy is worth, The starling stirs the nimbus clouds that...

. Autumnal Wind Autumnal Wind, who are in speed as swift As was the Spring with which my life began, If you would sigh upon this lonely man, And whistle through his heart’s wide-open rift, Then from the thorns of life I bid you lift This fallen leaf; to blow...

. Supplication to Erato and Melpomene Erato, decked in crimson roses; green branches of myrtle, Help me forge the words to win her heart: My crippled pen can summon not the words that might make fertile Barren hours passing till we part. Her eyes are of the ancient jade; like...

. . Instructions Set in Bone With my own knife, by my own hand, I carve these words in no-man’s-land Upon the skull of my late foe, Who sheltered here some weeks ago. He’d only paused to rest a time, And plug a hole, broad as a dime, Drilled into...

. A Sleepless Night Lest I should suffer sleeplessly this night Of loathsome loneliness, whose strength severe So weakens me that many a bitter tear Bewails my sweetless, ever souring plight; I call on my subconscious to recite Those dulcet days, that distant yesteryear, To which I would by thought...

. Repaired Debris drifts down my lacrimosa stream shards discarded when my life exploded. Her cheating ripped apart my every seam left a rubble heap she soon unloaded. Finding all my parts, your love resummed them rebuilt a greater whole, I now can cope. Quelling restive fears, your love benumbed...

. Guitar by Victor Hugo (1802-1885) Translated by Joshua C. Frank Gastibelza, the rifleman coming to town, Sang loud and clear: “Has someone seen Doña Sabina around, Someone from here? O villagers, sing and dance, go have your fill While the night gains! The wind that comes flying around every...

. Sonnet to a Friend It’s you who’ve been a constant in my life from earliest thirst and to this very day. You’ve helped me sail through lassitude and strife, have always kept the ennui at bay. You’ve shown me stars and galaxies above: spelled out their numbers, called their...

. Just Not Alone…   I never asked For easy tasks, For burdens light For just delights. Expected not The breaks I’ve got, And when they came I sought no fame. As demands abound, I’ve stood my ground. As storms have come--- I have not run! I asked to fight...

. Never Argue with a Progressive They never tell the truth, except by accident, And when they do, they’ll tell you that they really meant The opposite, so what’s a trusting man to do? Admittedly, such perfidy is nothing new, But we would like to take a person at his...

. Equal Schmequal   The traits of men were glibly mocked __By those who thought men strange--- Those who thought the world half-cocked __ And fought for chop and change--- All those who chose to rise and rail Against the rock and role of male--- __‘Twas time to rearrange The natural order of the...

. Bergerette by Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), translated by Margaret Coats O shepherdess, my friend,On love alone I live.True love is life’s true end,My heart can comprehend,And therefore I intend_My love unceasingly to give.O shepherdess, my friend,On love alone I live. Love lends me confidence,Grants conscience calmer sense,Builds patient competence,_Forms...

. Fire on Ice How shall I serve my anger up to you? Shall I become like one most distant star Burning intensely, far from where you are, Incinerating---infinite degrees Made a mere twinkling to the earthly view--- Till, when its light has reached you from afar, By then, my...

. Sentimental Song A pad and pen lie by his side __This moonless night of fall. And though he tries to hush his pride, To only see the tears she cried, His hands refuse to breach the wall, __A pithy line to scrawl. His mind, in angst, replays the day...

. Daedalus Icarus, you have disobeyed, As all men do, and dearly paid. Too recklessly your heart did fly Between high seas and louring sky. The wings I gave you, it is true, But what would you have had me do? No hand does good, no heart loves well Constrained...

. Ruby Jubilee We’ve made a grand tour of exuberance, Repeated as our hearts reverberate, Imagining abodes where we might dwell For seasons long enough to celebrate Red-letter days our travel plans foretell. Though rooms or rain or hindrances displease, Experience and memory advance The journey through our realm of...

. Aftertaste Love at first sip was so cloyingly sweet, When I’d have gladly laid all at his feet, Sworn by the heavens his eminent worth, Followed him unto the ends of the earth. Tragic, how quickly he emptied the glass; Shocking, how hastily pleasures can pass. Salty the drops...

. Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Odes, II.8 “The first thing we learn about Barine is that she is in the habit of making and breaking promises (of love and fidelity, presumably) and that she is never punished for her inveterate perjuries. She is evidently to be imagined as having sworn some...

. . Introduction Percy Bysshe Shelley was born August 4, 1792 and died in a boating accident on July 8, 1822. To mark the 200th anniversary of his death, Guntbert “Gunny” Markefka and the Powerpoets Project (© 2022) have put Shelley's poem "Line to an Indian Air" to music. Set...

. Tongues as of Fire If men desire to find belief, to sing It out through throats works best to make the soul Embrace it.  This will make the sought faith zing Behind their hearts and manliness’s whole. The faith will throb straight through the tenor throats, The baritones and...

. A Modernization of “To His Coy Mistress” You say we should some years delay The coming of our wedding day, But God commanded us to try To fruitful be and multiply. To make new life, we cannot shirk; The night shall come, when none can work. Just as she...

. Speechless I have smelt the perfect scent of the flower of a rose, Known intoxicated freedom where frangipani grows. Watched majestic rivers meet the wild and moody sea, And flown right over mountains where only gods should be. I have drunk the purest water in the deepest caves on...

. Revelation You never see suspects admitting their guilt, __Or partisans stating they lied. You’ll never hear soccer stars fearing defeat, __Or macho guys saying they cried. In a world where the truth’s often hidden away, __And the facts can be hard to construe, One thing I would never keep...

. Hymn to Aurora  1 Aurora, rise and cast your curls Of daybreak through the vapor swirls To drape my face in scarlet beams— Since you left me I’ve had bad dreams. Like waves, my sheets have tossed and turned, I’ve waxed and waned, I’ve dripped and burned, My patience...

. Two Poems for White Day On White Day, March 14, men in Japan present white gifts to women, in return for the chocolates they receive from women on Valentine’s Day. White Day began in 1978 as a commercial venture to sell more candy and flowers. It is now observed...

. Little to Regret When Time has stilled my body __Think of me now and then, Asleep beneath the wattle, __Which flowers yet again. And as the summer follows __With rays I cannot see, Let the warmth embrace you— __My passion cannot be! And when your time approaches __(In many...

. When words are sharp, and clash like iron blades, I swallow swords. I grimace, turn away. You fear I wield a shield, that love will fade, That wordless I our promises betray. Yet iron sharpens iron, I have heard, And so I breathe and write and learn to speak....