All that winter I waited, close to you
as breath to words, and yet I was silent,
wise enough to be mute and not intrude,
content as your listening instrument.
No voice was ever so adored as yours--
no hands that made me wish to be the book
they held, so memorized, all else ignored
in my single wish for your favored look.
The devil finds a weakness and within
it builds the sweetest of all illusion.
So, for such deception, thanks are due him;
pieties are best spent when we lose them.
Why did you kiss me, just once, with no word?
Kisses evermore, superfluous...absurd.
__________
Wow. This is so smooth, moves so beautifully. I love this.
ReplyDeleteOh, the sweet ache of only one kiss. Sigh. Perfectly written.
ReplyDeletetrue, one kiss can be all this
ReplyDeletebeautiful
the yearning left in that question is potent
ReplyDeletehave a good Tuesday
much love...
One, the ideas, the feelings, the experience behind this poem--so powerful. And yes, one single kiss can be remembered for forever.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, a sonnet? That is a form that has eluded me for years. I've tried them a couple of times and they seem forced. Stiff. Yours, on the other hand, seems effortless. Please tell me you worked for seven hours straight, had to call in sick to work so you could work out the lines, that you wasted a ream of paper writing and crossing out lines and rewriting lines. Please say that, even if it's all lies.
Wonderfully smooth sonnet with lovely word play especially around the breath and instrument and the book. Really well done, Shay. K.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's one heck of a sonnet!
ReplyDeleteIt happens that I don't at all agree with La Bruyere, but the poem is very convincing in its intensity.
A kiss for the ages ~~ yes, it does exist. Thank you for reminding me.
ReplyDeleteThe sonnet is the perfect form for this poem - the beauty of love, the sense that it is unrequited, the wistful remembrance of things past. I really enjoyed this Shay.
ReplyDeleteWhy did you kiss me,
ReplyDeletejust once, with no word?
A love so true but unrequited means nothing eventually. Great sonnet Shay!
Hank
Awesome. Reminds me of a bittersweet poem I read in high school, "Midsummer" by Sidney King Russell. xo
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful sonnet!!
ReplyDeleteSo pretty, just dripping with melancholy, in a good way! I wish to be the book.
ReplyDelete"No voice was ever so adored as yours--
ReplyDeleteno hands that made me wish to be the book
they held, so memorized, all else ignored"
Lovely, wistful longing of what might have been
A measured and reposeful meter, skillful internal and end rhymes that almost disappear, leaving only their beautiful nuance as the bittersweet of lost love meets the vintage cask of memory, preserving and even perhaps enhancing it. As always, when you do use form, Shay, you excel. An exquisite, delicate and haunting sonnet.
ReplyDeleteboy, this is one of my favorites of your poems (and that's really saying something!)... it resonates a lot with me right now, joining me on a journey through memories - somehow so much sharper and simpler in hindsight, yet the feelings still rock to the core. beautiful, beautiful work (and photo!).
ReplyDeletehow can the Mistress of Free Verse (you) also be so fucking good at old-fashioned form poetry? it's not right! it's not fair! it's eeeeeeevil!
ReplyDelete{me, jealous? never!}
♥