Thursday, January 21, 2021

LOVE LETTERS LEFT UNWRITTEN



E: so pure & angelic,

WW2 silver screen vision of sensuous fragility,

That shy nervous butterfly glance,

Eyes that smile with a frightened kindness,

Looking in. Egyptian beauty -

Or Jewish doppelgänger of Adrienne,

Long-lost lover-to-be,

Still an enigma! But always?

(I almost hope so).




K: leprechaun lady,

A whole enchanted forest of mischievous charms.

Heady nymph, Grecian in a way,

Penetrating intelligence, ready to explode

In wonder. A happy laugh,

Columbine to the perfect Pierrot,

So much happiness waiting just to burst forth

In wanton affirmation. Yet such abiding pain,

You need God’s strength to win through.




L: a flower ready to bloom like peacocks at dawn,

A flower growing out of squalor,

Into possible splendor,

Or back into squalor’s powerful pull.

Lunar, therefore receptive,

But with a head hardened to fight.

Loving & living on the threshold of sanity,

In a nightmare, in a dream,

Or a dream within a nightmare

Of routine which she accepts as normalcy.

Mother Goddess, succubus of my life,

My weakness & strength,

Anchor & manacle.




M: slowly ripening fruit of secret knowledge &

Primal ecstasies. Jewel case buried

Under the ages of custom & unquestioning

Obedience to the dictates of society.

Angel-to-be, that I see

In the gentle softness & forgiving kindness

Of your heart’s loving whisper.

All you need is the freedom to be free,

To recapture the wild spirit

Of beauty that grazes forlornly

In forgotten pastures of

A glorious future.




B: earth goddess, amazon siren

Of my odyssey, creature of comfort

And supreme indulgence.

Fearless in a way, frightened too,

Of what you’ll discover if you dig any deeper

Into your own nature.

Adventuress of our time & age,

Woman in khaki & celestial leather,

With Indian bells instead of bullwhips,

A wondrously big heart just like mine!

And that’s why I love you.




Mo: my reflection, Psyche in the mirror

Of my mind’s lake. Doe-like,

Sprite-winged, wind through afternoon trees,

Dew at dawn, vanishing shyly,

Singing in the faraway silences of reality woods.

I visit you in the solitude of days gone mad,

In the magic of evenings when fireflies play,

Unafraid of bats or darkness approaching.

I awake to your luminescence at night

In childhood’s privacy,

Gazing wide-eyed at your innocence &

Unearthly sensuality.




J: sweet sister of my heart &

Always-possible lover in my head!

Someone I know so well,

Through a famous novel or two,

Written by me. Yet yesterday’s

Lovenotes linger & cluster

Like young folks in a barndance,

Newly-born stars in a night sky,

Forming a neverending symphony

Of kind thoughts & warm feelings &

Eternal hope.




Lil: perhaps my twin star,

Perhaps my other self,

Perhaps only a phantasm

Born in the bedlam of ancient feelings.

I know you, I know you not,

It doesn’t matter,

I believe in magic,

When all else fails. This much

I’m sure of, you actually sweat –

Though, oh! so sweetly...

You must be real in some universe

Somewhere I can call my own.




?: who makes my heartstrings go

Plonk plink in the still of my soul’s long night,

Who tickles my earlobes when I’m asleep

With her warm & fragrant breath,

Just like a breeze across the midnight dunes,

Reminding me of oases & dazzling nightskies?

She gueststars in my private comicstrip cosmos,

With always a new hairdo &

Outfits that outline her sheer outrageous

Magnificence to pulsating painful perfection...

She comes upon me when I’m exhausted!

She actually knows the truth, She!

My aeroplane head woman,

Thanks to Pete Brown, a true poet &

Personal friend of the Far-Out

Queen of Outer Space.


28 March 1977