Love poems

Kenneth Carroll

elaborate signings

(for Joy)

"women are the sweetness of life."

poets can build galaxies from pebbles
& breathe the word of life into brief glances,
but one must be careful with the power of creation
so i scribble an obligatory, struggling to keep from
staining the page with the exaggeration of new passion,
unsure if i am simply the writer who lives downstairs,
plays his coltrane too loud & likes thunderstorms

i take a trip one flight up
where your eyes escort me to another country,
your touch becomes a wet kiss on the horizon
of a birthday in a warm july
i travel to your smile to hear stories of
wrecked trains parked in your dining room

but the past is a vulgar thief
it steals the laughter from your eyes,
tosses the broken edges of yesterday's heartache
into this remembrance
i dream of erasing painful memories with lingering
caresses from a steady hand

i rearrange the jagged stars of your past
i am the young boy smiling at you with love letter eyes
i carve your name into the soul of graying trees
i am your first slow dance, a trembling hand teetering on your waist
i replace the melancholy prayers on your lips with urgent kisses
i swear an oath to your beauty, become holy in your embrace

traveling tall miles through years of distance,
i arrive, wet from your tears,
my only tool-a poet's skill
i mend your smile,
emancipate your eyes,
& together
we ride that wrecked train from your dining room
to the horizon of your birthday in another country.

Citate de dragoste

• 'Love vanquishes time. To lovers, a moment can be eternity, eternity can be the tick of a clock.'
  ~ Mary Parrish
• 'To keep your marriage brimming,
  With love in the loving cup,
  Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
  Whenever you’re right, shut up.'
  ~ Ogden Nash
• 'Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.'
  ~ Carl Jung