Slims

Here are a couple. I left the first few (and the best) at home. They were full shakespearean sonnets and very well written. She spent a lot of time on them and were beautiful.

The last sonnet that I have was written quickly and is not as good as the rest, but here it is:

No stormy sky nor much awaited rain
Will e'er suffice for poetry by night,
The force of which the wind will not detain
But driven by one found in heart-strung sight.

Do you think this writing becomes trite?
With much regret, I'd give this all away.
Without cessation, may one find delight.
And more, an aching soul one does allay.

But fie, this cold and torrent stain these days,
And soils too the words with disguised dread.
Too sad to express truly sublime praise
That, rained upon, will still remain unsaid.

The cold did steal some ardor laced in dew
But warmer still is this fervor for you.



Then, as spring came around, she switched to prose:

While you may find the sonnet to be of elevated eloquence
Prose is the more playful for the softer days of spring
Thus the tedious tempo and meticulous metered rhyme
Are replaced with the longer lasting lighted days
. And aromatic anecdotes

Fear not that I have lost a lust
For tricky trysts
And perverse poetry
Instead believe that I have absorbed
Every last breath of sun
. Sweetly satiated
But I regret that I must leave this warmth behind...

Wait, before me still is the counterpart of the sun that hides within
And emerges from inside to chase away the shadowed hours
Such a light, warmth, and glow reside solely in your smile
That I may bask in such a sun is so much more refreshing


Then this:

What cautous eyes do not see
And weary ears do not hear
A peculiar delight to alight
The strangest of these rendesvous

Idle tongue and pen have I
This hour I write in haste
But do not fret poetic cramp
Will halt the weekly appetite

Gaze you now upon the stars
And the sky in quiet glory
The great expanse is there for us
To discover, to explore
The world will well appease
The taste that comes with living
With all the world to contemplate
All I can think about is you



This was the last anonymous poem:

Have you been lost?
Can I not see?
As quick as the waves crash in,
The tide falls out
. And thus is my agonizing dilemma

. The weeks pass and from you, no jocund words escape,
. Sight unseen, and heart unmended,
. Misfortune, my newfound companion,
. Hides you now, yearning far from contented

I sigh. Oh that I may find you soon

Worrisome, this song I write with heavy hesitation
I fear it my last
. But know that in cessation of prose
. Adulation outlives poetry



I was speaking to her about the poems over the summer. She mentioned the "birthday poem" that she hand delivered to me, and I told her I couldn't find it, and asked her to send me a copy. I later found the the version she actually sent me, and it is quite different from this one. I cried when I read this one:

The best of all my vices
hides in daily, trite reprises

the first tinny note
pierces morning reverie
mused by time, that incessant heartbeat;
an eyelid-full of caffeine,
it musters an encore,
ever twenty-four hours

and though I carefully note
to wear a mood upon my sleeve
on the other, skip of a heartbeat,
to change what came before
like the day preceding, of bitter encore
the same ennerving hours

but soon you're there, and a hope
that this hour, too, will saunter in
behind you through that door, off by a beat and different from the hours before.
both came in unannounced, unprovoked, unseen
but too late to break uncomfortable routine
so leave as soon as you arrive

no desired and important conference or spoken note
has passed, but was so intended.
instead you and false hopes
left quicker than a heartbeat.
morose regrets of my lost intentions grant an encore
once or more by every passing hour

may false hopes be true
and happy birthday to you


Even though things never really got off the ground between us, I treasure these poems and the memories they bring back. Let me know what you think of them.

edit: I tried to fix the 'formatting' let's hope it worked.
argh!! it won't let me indent or put in extra spaces. Oh well