Poetry of Love

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WELCOME TO  'POETRY OF LOVE'

by Elaine Sell Prefontaine



WINGS

He loves this self
And I bathe in the sunshine
Of his awareness.
His presence 
Guards me well
But I've flown so long
I fear this thing
And hedge its touching
Lest it stilt
My wings
And the grounding
Stifle us both. 


Elaine Sell Prefontaine

TANNED  AND  BROWN  AND WATER-WET

You are my sun
And my summers lake
And my glorious love
Because you gave it to me
 Last summer.

Now I shall see your face
In summer campfires
And feel your presence
In those same places
 We both loved
Even when you are gone.

My mind is so full of you
This afternoon
That I just want to be
 Tanned and brown 
 And water wet
  With you.   

Elaine Sell Prefontaine

BEAUTIFUL  BOUQUETS

Love me in the spring
And I shall plant flowers
For you.
Love me in the summer
And we will watch them blossom.
Love me in the fall
As I shall gather them
For beautiful bouquets,
And in the winter
I shall dream of them
  With you. 

Elaine Sell Prefontaine


FALL

Fields catch the gold of the sun
And autumn leaves
Steal colors from the sunset.
Even waters
Lose their blueness.
We both 
Have left our summer behind
Gone to the skies
That took you from me.

Elaine Sell Prefontaine

I SEE YOU IN SUNSETS

I see you in sunsets
And at night
Your face haunts the darkness
Dreams overcome me
The past becomes now
And you are mine again
Till the bright morning sun
Chases my dreams away.

 


Elaine Sell Prefontaine

I  SHALL  GO  DOWN  TO  THE  MALL  TODAY

This Poem was influenced by, and written to the meter of, 
 John Masefield's "Sea Fever"



I shall go down to the mall today
To the crowded street and the sky
And all I want is my own bench
And the sun to see me by

And a good book, and your soft look
In my mind so that I might write
And a cool breeze in the greening trees
To fill my own delight

And if perchance your face I glance
It shall be so much more to my pleasure
But if I don't, don't think I won't
The next time more to treasure



Elaine Sell Prefontaine

MY BIRTHDAY

It's not a birthday without you
So I'll celebrate it tomorrow
And whether you know it or not
That will be my real day.
You will be my present
And when I meet you
My eyes will wrap you in love
And I'll be happier with having you
Than all the kings ransom.


Elaine Sell Prefontaine

THROUGH  LOVES  EYES

I want to look at the world again
But this time through your eyes
And hear natures sounds again
As He looks down through loves eyes

I wish to be that child again
I was so long ago
And frolic in the woods again
Holding your hand as I go

I want to open my ears so wide
That I hear the silent sound
Of the whole world speaking to me
Although there is not a sound around

I want to be free in the wilds again
And together by His grace
We'll both be free of the world's toils again
And of the common place.

Elaine Sell Prefontaine


 

INFINITY

I look into your beautiful eyes
         And I see infinity.
 I love your eyes
           That love me,
And in them
            I see sunsets
            And my Gods
            And a glimpse of heaven,
            And our love that echoes in them.
I see freedom
             And a bondage
             They've silently sworn me to.
I see yesterdays
             And tomorrows.
I see a forever
             I 'm sometimes in.
I see your eyes
                Under this pencil
                As I write on them
And they are 
                 As real in my mind
                 As when I'll look into them
                 As I give you this.     

Elaine Sell Prefontaine

THE  TRESPASSER

I went to the park last night
And as the wind
Whipped around the long skirt
I wore with you there 
I found our place.
A man was lying
On the grass,
A trespasser to our love,
And I wanted
To ask him to go away.

Elaine Sell Prefontaine

THE  PROMISE

I remember 
So many things of us
Things that remain as alive
As if they happened now.
I remember so much
         So many things
          And times
          And feeling we shared
          And share

Proof we are each others.

As long as I have eyes to see
           I promise
          They will look at you with love
And if one of us goes
Or is away from the other
The sky will become our eyes
          And we will look there
          And see each other
And the wind will become our touch
          And the rain our tears
          And the sun our glories.
As the world is everything
             You are my world
              And it is you. 

Elaine Sell Prefontaine


THE  GIFT 


Thoughts are little else but you
There is little else without 'tis true

Your gift of love makes 
 Clearer the light
 Colors more bright
 More beautiful the sight

It seems I see with the vision of two 
For now my love I share it  with you 

Magnified in intensity, a brand new world
This imagination soars, thoughts unfurled

These steps so light on gossamer clouds
No purgatory, no hell, no darkened shrouds

Even paint jumps from tube to palette knife
To give virgin canvas inspired life.


Elaine Sell Prefontaine

BELOVED


Oh my beloved
How do I think on thee?
I think on thee
As no man has ever uttered.

I think on thee
In such a chaste, pure fashion
That even my penned words
Appear gross in their sight. 

I love thee in a most perfect way
In the truest flowing of reality
As the sun rises and the moon wanes pale
Then into darkness, and a sudden light. 

Elaine Sell Prefontaine

SANS TIME,  SANS ELSE,  SANS END

I dwell on our next time together
And how we'll quietly hold each other to tether
The unquiet that plagues us when we are apart
To rationalize our thoughts, our matters of the heart

And oh to kiss your eyelids to close
The rest of the world away
And lock you in love's arms repose
'Ere these souls dismiss our bodies' clay 

To lie with you upon the ground
Until are bodies are in it
And have our joy of this love resound

And stuff full each living minute.

Oh that shall be a glorious day
My most dearest, my most precious friend
To share our breath, our books, our words
Sans time, sans else, sans end

Elaine Sell Prefontaine

WITHOUT  A  LOOK  BACK


Without a look back
We separated 
 At the terminal
But you stayed with me
On the drive back to town
And are still with me
 Under these fluorescent office lights
As this pen follows itself
 Onto my unspoken thoughts
 Of you.

                                    Elaine Sell Prefontaine

I  SET  MY  LIFE

I set my life on dreams
And dreams were all I found
I set my life on visions
And they surrounded me
I set my life on love
And it gave me strength 
I set my life on words
And I found myself.

Elaine Sell Prefontaine

 


 

 


*  

After having entered my own poetry on  this Poetry of Love Page
I would like to now share five beautiful love poems written by four 
Grand Old Masters of Poetry:

William Butler Yeats
William Shakespeare
Kahlil Gibran

Omar Khayyam

                                                            Elaine

*

 

 

THE CLOTHS OF HEAVEN
by: William Butler Yeats
England 1865 - 1939

Had I the heaven's embroider'd cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet
But I being poor, have only my dreams
I have spread my dreams under your feet
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

 
*

 


WHEN YOU ARE OLD
by: William Butler Yeats
England 1865 - 1939 

When you are old and grey and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book
And slowly read and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep

How many loved your moments of glad grace
And loved your beauty with love false or true
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you
And loved the sorrows of your changing face

And bending down beside the glowing bars
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead 
And hid his face amid a crown of stars


*

 

LET ME NOT TO THE MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS  (Sonnet 116)
by: William Shakespeare
England, 1564 - 1616

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments.  Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh no! It is an ever-fixed mark
That looks upon tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star of every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;  
Love alters not within his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out ev'n to the edge of doom.
If these be error and upon me proved
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

 *

 "LOVE" 
From "THE PROPHET"
by: Kahlil Gibran
Lebanon, 1883 - 1931

When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep,
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you,
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver
in the sun,
So shall  he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant; 
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed. 
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God".
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love,
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

*

 

QUATRAIN X1
From the
 
 
RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

by: Omar Khayyam
Persia, 1048 - 1132
As translated by Edward Fitzgerald 
Ireland, 1809 - 1883 

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise 'enow. 



 


 
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                                                                                                 Elaine