Thinking What You Don't Say

Filled with delicate reluctance, 
I see you differently.
I know and yet I wonder,
Just how you see me.
I thought we watched the ivy twine,
But was it on your walls or mine?

Marie Curie had a glow
That Einstein couldn't miss.  
But clever conversation
Cannot compare with this. 
In every silence that you spoke
Another brilliant newsflash broke.

A Yellowtail Shiraz
Turns a corner on my lips,
It is your taste that makes me smile
When progress halts and schedule slips. 
I'm sure that it was your arrival
That turned mere Existence to Survival.  

I didn't know how to hate you,
But I stopped you as you spoke
And softly though the words you breathed
I read the signals through the smoke.  
You etched your name in frozen time,
And I float here in suspense sublime.

Now abandonment holds no fear,
Though I have fretted for a year;
You slowly marched up to the helm
And ushered me to some new realm
Where imperfect puzzles ring so true
And there's a day for me and you.  

Drugstore Wrapper They were bangers doin' Mollies, Liked to watch the Sheilahs gag, They treated lassies like collies Then they'd zip them in a bag. They queried Maurice about the scene, And asked Jerome just where he'd been, They said when your life is in the crapper, You've got no use for a drugstore wrapper. There was a Dick that called her Vic, I said that's not her name; He said, "You're a person of interest," And "She was just another Dame." The doctor talked in Latin, And then the priest did, too, I think a tall man said her last name Like it came from Popol Vu. The Peelers kept me under a lamp in the dark, Watching blood in my eye with a frustrated sigh. She must have had a visit from a foreigner, And they had a hunch that he was I. For a while ten men were all my friends, And told me victims were volunteers, They said scanty clothes just asked for it And smiled at me with clever sneers. Gentlemen made me generous offers, Suits with promises would make their claims And leisure clothes would sell me plea deals To get a list of names. They asked me all about her, I said I'd like to tell them more But I didn't think she'd like it And now we can't be really sure. They said that she was really strong, That she put up quite a fight; They asked about the cuts and scars That I'd given myself that night. My family was most helpful, They all would testify To how I'd acted strange of late And no-one knew just why. Expert witnesses would theorize On my expanding fantasy: Seems I'd started with the small things, But those clearly weren't enough for me. Papers cited a similar case, And I felt the weight of all who stared; The multitude would work their angles, But none of them ever really cared. They mused about my silent stare And why I mounted no better defense, They used my wounds and endless lack To create guilt from innocence. Then Seamus with a bronze star, shouted gleefully, "We found another floater! Let the fool go free!" But now I'm tied to a kitchen chair, And my neighbors want to know, Why they grabbed a local dude and let the white guy go.

Familiarity

or how I came to love you

Custom is comfort and rarity an adventure, Nothing I should have done brought me to you. Life moves forward: Time gives no debenture, Will moves the muscle and chance follows through. Rites aren't sacrifice until they are hollow, Honor and privilege are easy to bear. The bland and the bitter can be too hard to swallow, But not knowing is hard when I feel you're not there. The ways of the world are smooth and unmoving, The appearance and feeling jar and derail; The stage of our being is ever unsettling, But I always try to arrive without fail. Where were we going and what were we doing, That I had to wait and wonder so long? How did you know and when did you know it, And how did you get me to follow along? The words and the seasons were steps laid together, We thought that one game would be our life; But sunlight and season betray their own reason, And cradles of beauty can still lead to strife. Let us be on, now, let's shed foul distemper, Neither let's doubt forever again, Be my sweet lover and ever remember, That this path won't lead to forever again.

(null)

What Angels hold an heart in thee, That keeps me writing ever to eternity? How far the gentle breath I feel is near, That I would welcome thee as though thou mightst come here? What holy of the most hallowed might Send me to put these words in light, That all fellow mortals might see, The light I give thy image and the breath though giv'st to me? Do not be abashed by my tone, There is no honor but yours and yours alone. If there might be some meager crumb that I might eke, From that grand inspiration that I seek, It is those few words in every day, That I see written on the page as thou wouldst say.

Creeping in on the steel lines, A vibration that started elsewhere; I gauge my step, avoid the mines, But the message always puts my foot there. I didn't ask, why should I know? Where people come and people go. It's a primitive inculcation That I accept without reservation, But did the Creator's voice ordain That I would follow this refrain? A pungent taste, a smell of blood; And then they raise you on the wood. Good deeds done are in the past, Who cares today, they didn't last. I didn't seek, why did you hide? I felt the pulse and then I knew. It's a fundamental impregnation That I observe by regulation But was it burned into the chart, Or is it a failure in my heart?

English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald. The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

620. Sonnets from the Portuguese

XLIII Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) HOW do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

I will look for nothing else, Because the day has come; I will not seek to satisfy Because it's all been done. Every crystal mirror will just call you. And Every crystal mirror will just call you. There will never be a way to say goodbye, Because every blue morning I will cry and die; You spent so much time finding me Where I sat forever on the edge of eternity. And every crystal mirror will just call to you, Every crystal mirror will know you too. And the envelope of forever will open up, Where on his lips every flower will see time forgot; And some will see and say it was you and me, But it doesn't matter 'cause it's not a lot. And every crystal mirror will call to you, And every shard of slicing I will feel too. They always make a large black blot, To fade out the forget-me-not; Fools seek a seat in destiny. I only hoped for a moment of you and me.

1106

The product of love is ransomed by obligation Which takes the name of family's honorable call. Isolating dates are made aimed at negotiation Cloaked robberies that take you away from it all. You go, you say you know it's for the best, Projecting someday futures where a prize is won. They seem so sincere and well-intentioned, while Bit by bit their goals are realized and yours undone. No sacrifice too great for them, they are the dearer, Since your loss was theirs, their gain seems yours as well, But into that pleasant trap he draws you nearer Where promises of paradise can spin the fires of hell. So step by step you yield to subtle pressures, Though from here your distant gaze I still can see, Earnest desire cannot compete with shrewd manoeuvre And the beckoning treasure seems reality. So as the frost crystallizes Saturday Morning Haze The quiet candle from old passion breeds new steam Again I feel the violence of each crime and craze Numbers on a dial for me, for you a mirror that must seem a dream . . .