When I was twelve, going on thirteen, as the leaves fell from the trees in 1988, our Language Arts class was asked to write a sense poem with "love" as the topic. We were unaware that our teacher was also choosing a poem from each grade to be entered into a city-wide poetry contest.
I was truly the kid who used to make wishes at the wishing well and sit in the warm sun, gazing (no, really, I gazed... seriously), thinking about lovely nature, and daydreaming of spectacular adventure. So, this was the poem my adolescent mind generated, complete with my current feelings after each line in parentheses:
Our Love
Love is a wonderful color, beyond explanation.
(Yes, because you couldn't think of any.)
It tastes like caviar and chocolate covered cherries.
(AND champagne wishes?? Oh my God, I'm Robin Leach.)
Love sounds like beautiful music being played at oceanside by a goddess.
(Is she sitting on a rock, strumming a harp, perchance?)
It smells like a garden of roses with the scent of sweet perfume.
(At least I wrote this before Bon Jovi laid on his bed of roses.)
It looks like man and woman, together, forever embracing.
(until someone farts...)
Love makes me feel like my heart will pop out at any moment from the excitement.
(and this makes me feel like I want to vomit from all the cliches.)
Four years later in 1992, I was on to sonnets- boy, did I love Shakespearean sonnets. There are still a lot of filler words being used. Notice that the material has taken on a slightly more mature tone and introduces the idea of turmoil in unrequited love. I think I wrote this for a teacher- a major crush on the super-hottie-young-wrestling coach who was only 26 or 27 at the time... I actually remember writing this poem in the typing lab and printing it on the dot-matrix:
Unreachable Lover
This night that passed, I felt again your touch,
It was as grand as a warm summer's eve.
Your porcelain, red lips I've missed so much;
These tears, again, they will flow when you leave.
An exchange of thoughts and hearts once again;
These moments I anxiously do await;
Until then, on other days it will rain;
Perhaps, this is my unchangeable fate.
Although not true, all my dreams seem so real;
It oft hurts to wake to an empty bed;
These visions were ones I, indeed, could feel;
There must be a way all these would be dead.
Can you understand my feelings for you?
Just know one thing, all love expressed is true.
Then, in 1995, I had my first, major break-up with a boy. We actually still keep in touch and he agrees that he treated me miserably... though I was a stupid, little girl. Anyway, for about a week, I hated this guy for breaking my heart:
Through tragedy, my hopes have gone,
No longer do I feel the pain;
A numbness in my every touch;
Now, I know no other way.
Viciously-
my mind spirals
downward, further
Until it hits the frosty sweat
days spent
future's past-
Thanks to you, I've learned this love
Thanks to you, I feel no pain,
And so to you, a cheery toast,
"Anguish and sorrow will here remain
with you."
The candle drips,
my spirit rips;
Fills up with a shuddering hurt;
Screams and blood,
Confusion, madness,
Black tears-
Isolation;
And it's all thanks to you.
No venom, angst, or insanity there, kids. So, I began to lighten up a little when I, again, found love in 1996:
I wake in the morning
feeling your gentle kiss
pressing my lips--
I smile
my spirit, again, knows
joy
freedom to soar
through eternity with hearts
open
souls united
wishes granted--
a spirit so high
birds cannot follow
but together we climb
together in peace
harmony--
knowing love
seeing beauty in others'
eyes
learning that existence
is enough to love
to give love
to forever
love.
Then, I was married and in 1999, I gave birth to my first child and "Love" took on a whole new meaning:
Julia Love
My bright angel baby--
shimmering happiness
exploding into stars
shooting across the sky,
falling upon wide eyes,
transforming into dreams.
Kiss a delicate cheek--
warmth of a thousand suns
penetrate, melt the soul,
lift it to the heavens
delivering to God--
a universe of love.
Finally, I began writing about universal love- making love to the entire quantum universe- immersing, superimposing, all of me into and onto all of it. No longer limited by earthly love, I decided to branch out and expand the definition:
Body Electric
Turn on my Body Electric,
come-- brush against my quarks,
a chemistry explosively
revealed after dark.
I wish to be your lightning rod,
come ZAP! me in delight,
come in, explore, there's so much more,
find vision without sight.
So long, I've searched through galaxies,
and foraged through a maze
of lifeless, empty energy
forced stunted by a haze.
Get warped, consume my juicy space,
take journeys in my mind,
wrap warm lips around every
particle you can find.
I continue to write love poems- though, likely, they will continue to reflect my love of Nature. I haven't changed from the little girl who used to lay in the grass and search for bugs, cloud watch, and smell all the neighbor's tulips and daffodils on the way to school in the springtime- so much that she'd be late for 1st grade almost every day.
In fact, all this daydreaming and reminiscing about love has occupied my time all day today...
