BWAIN Dump

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2011-01-18T20:12:00.001-08:00

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Rumor Mill | ProFootballTalk

2011-01-14T19:17:00.000-08:00

See this link at Rumor Mill | ProFootballTalk

Florio had it right...good job Mangold.

Sonnet 109 – Babying You

2006-03-17T13:22:00.000-08:00

You came home early today.  When I met
you at the front door, it was evident
that you were feeling poorly.  So I let
the cat escape into the yard, hell-bent

as he was on flight.  I took your coat, led
you to the sofa, then made you sit while
I eased shoes from tired feet.  When I said
I’d be your pillow, you let slip a smile

and laid your head upon my lap.  Rubbing
your neck and shoulders, I whispered peace and
rest and love to soothe you.  You were sleeping
deeply within moments.  I can’t pretend

that I’d trade places with any man.  The
cat paws at the pane while you dream of me.

Sonnet 108 – First Shower

2006-03-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

Your hair is washed and clean now, so I fill
my palms with soft soap and rub the liquid
into neck and shoulders and back until
you start to sway and moan.  Feeling wicked,

I wash you with my arms and chest and reach
around to lather your breasts and belly.
Working with purpose – before you can catch
my hands – I trail lips and tongue along the

landscape of you, following the water
which flows along your limbs.  I kneel down and
I turn you to face me as you rest your
thigh on my shoulder.  Writhing hips demand

my attention.  You grip the shower stem
while I kiss and nibble, making you scream.

Sonnet 107 – Unthinkable

2006-03-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

You wanted to make yourself beautiful
for me, though no one else could know what
your desires were.  It was unthinkable
to me that you could shine more brightly, that

you could not see what a wonder you were.
I recall, though, that I dropped my coat when
I first saw you there and I remember
thinking I’d never question you again.

I spent the evening lost in you – I tried
to seem casual even as I fought
the desire to hold you.  I can not hide
my passion for you, though I know I ought

to.  I want to spend a long life in love
with you and I want others to approve.

Sonnet 106 – Wake Me With Kisses

2006-03-14T16:37:00.000-08:00

Wake me with kisses, Love.  The time for rest
has passed and we shouldn’t waste these bright hours
on sleep.  Lean in to me, let one white breast
weigh upon my heart as promised pleasures

stir me.  Let one hand trail along my arm
as you begin to whisper love to me.
Use your lips and tongue to move me, let warm
words rouse me, make me eager and hungry

to please you.  Hold me with your eyes, as well
as with your arms – let me lose myself to
the fire that only I have found there. Tell
me that you want me, that no part of you

is closed to me, that we two should be one.
I never want to wake alone again.

Sonnet 105 – My Dream

2006-03-08T10:20:00.000-08:00

I’m listening to David Sanborn while
he plays “The Dream” and I long to hold you,
to let our noses nuzzle as you smile
just for me.  When first I touched you, I knew

that I would want to spend a long life in
love with you.  I’ve seen us lying in a
hammock while summer breezes slowly spin
the wind chimes hanging on the porch.  No day

could be considered fair that does not end
with you lying by me, your eyes alight
with the joy you find in us.  I would send
you off to dreams dreaming of me.  As night

enfolds you and sleep takes you, I would kiss
you gently, thankful all days end like this.

Sonnet 104 – Baser Spirit

2006-03-08T09:31:00.000-08:00

I can’t afford Chateau Lafitte, though there
was a time I could.  When I was younger,
I drank the finest vintages, whether
it was wise or foolish to surrender

precious hours and dollars so.  Yet the chance
to taste a vine that only wealthy men
could savor, to imagine that romance
as the Rothschilds had known it could begin

to seep into the sap of a man born and
bred much more humbly, gave vicarious
pleasure.  These days, I drink nothing so grand.
And if it’s a baser spirit that moves

me, it’s a spirit that earnestly yearns
to find a beauty that soothes as it burns.

Sonnet 103 – Small Things

2006-03-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

I love to feel how your fingers twine in
my hair while you lean over me and tell
me that we belong.  I cannot begin
to tell you how you move me or how well

you fit every nook of me.  It is
in the small things that our larger truths are
revealed to us.  It’s in the way you kiss
me when no one is looking, as though there

might be someone to disapprove of two
souls so truly met.  It’s in the way we
yearn for each other every hour you
are apart from me.  Angel – promise me

that you’ll see this small man become greater
by your love, that his love brings you pleasure.

Sonnet 102 – I Can Let You Go

2006-02-24T16:50:00.000-08:00

I can let you go now. If you ever
needed me, the need has passed. We are two
creatures who walked for a time together.
Passion needs tending. You’d forgotten who

you were but never lost the habit of
need. I took you unaware. I’m a man
who could move you, could remind you that love
can be more than routine. There is no plan

that guides us to our destiny. It is
chance that shows us a moment and choice that
binds us to another. All our wishes
fall before will, are realized by it.

I wish you to be where you find joy, where
you feel home. I only wish it were here.

Sonnet 101 – Not Malice, But Mischief

2006-02-24T15:01:00.000-08:00

You are maddening and not always in
the best of ways. You have a quick wit and
a wicked streak. Sometimes the impish grin
that comes with your delight will leave a man

left standing less than steady. It’s a bit
disorienting to feel the barb then
see that lovely face, to realize it
is not malice but mischief. Then again,

I’ve come to love that part of you. I’m far
less fleet than you, so my best defense is
to roll with it, to know the heart, the care
for me that lies behind the taunt. One kiss

is all it takes to heal me, Love. So tease
me, then please me with your kinder mercies.

Sonnet 100 – Out of Town

2006-02-24T13:17:00.000-08:00

We’ll be out of town this weekend, away
from home and in-laws and children.  So much
of who we are is bound in them, that we
need to seek ourselves again.  The first touch

will be a revelation, another
finding for two so often lost and found.
Hotel beds are for lovers - the mother
of my children will not lie there.  The sound

I seek would never come from mommy’s voice.
When I look into my lover’s eyes, I
will see you - my one, true love; first choice
for any lifetime.  When, at last, we cry

out for joy, when exhaustion begins to
take its toll, I will hold you, treasure you.

Sonnet 99 – Combrogi

2006-02-24T10:31:00.000-08:00

We were combrogi – companions, brothers,
equals – and we held the light against the
night’s fall.  We didn’t seek battle – others
chose conflict for us and we were simply

there, equipped to lead the cause. So we fought.
We fought for a generation consigned
to fear, to strife, to lack of hope.  We brought
knowledge bought with struggle – our scars remind

us all that no paper pedigree earns
a man respect.  It is the challenge, each
day met with love and dignity, which burns
us, brands us, calls us out and bids us reach

in faith to see the forsaken made more.
We were combrogi – companions endure.

For my brothers and sisters in arms…jwb

Sonnet 98 – I Miss You

2006-02-24T00:06:00.000-08:00

I miss you terribly. Today was a
particularly lonely day. We see
each other so little now that each day
crawls cruelly from sunrise to sleep. The

time we do manage to share is distant –
phone calls and emails are no substitute
for seeing you and holding you. I want
to support you fully and to refute

the notion that this is all about me.
I’ll confess it’s difficult, though. I’m so
much less without you – I’m never truly
happy when we’re apart. I cannot show

this face to others but you should never
doubt you're my best friend, my love, my lover.

Sonnet 97 – Obsession

2006-02-23T23:59:00.000-08:00

I would have thought I would think more of you
with more time on my hands.  That doesn’t seem
to be the case, though.  In fact, I spend no
more time than I did before.  Just one theme

frames my dreams – some would call that obsession,
would think my priorities wrong.  I don’t
agree.  If you consume my attention,
it’s because I choose to let you.  I won’t

feel regret for investing every
possible instant with thoughts of you.  Your
love is precious beyond measure to me.
I will live in a way that makes you sure

I only love you right now...and now…and
now.  I’ll remain yours until all nows end.

Sonnet 96 – Washing Dishes

2006-02-22T10:11:00.000-08:00

I’d storm Hell itself to make you happy.
Any man would – we want to be heroes
for the women that move us. Too many
times we forget to best the daily woes

that make our lovers’ lives less than Heaven.
We forsake the small things. We believe that
they don’t matter, or that they shouldn’t when
there are dragons prowling our landscapes. What

could we do but chase the epic? You
deserve better of the man who needs
you. So I’ll see to smaller things: I’ll do
the mowing while you weed the flower beds.

As we chase each of our dreams and wishes
down, I will stand with you, washing dishes.

Sonnet 95 – I Will Meet You Where You Are

2006-02-21T00:13:00.000-08:00

There are times you have had to stretch to hold
me – it’s just discomfort I feel in your
embrace, not disaffection.  You once told
me that you would gladly tie your future

to mine and you have also felt regret
for the telling.  Your love for me has caused
as much pain as joy – you’d as soon forget
it, dismiss it utterly, see it lost

to memory – but you can’t.  Nor can I.
If we’ve caused each other hurt, it’s not due
to lack of love.  Despite the ache, we try
each day to make love stronger, see it new.

You should know that you need not stretch so far
to hold me - I will meet you where you are.

Sonnet 94 - Communion

2006-02-16T20:52:00.000-08:00

I cannot seem to stop thinking of you.
It’s not the rolling, the writhing, the screams:
for hot monkey love, any wench will do.
Making love with you is the stuff of dreams,

a dance of immense and intimate joy.
It is sacred - the only communion
that any man is likely to truly
understand. This is no simple union

of two bodies. Our spirits reach across
time and miles, each seeking for the other
with fierce urgency and deep tenderness
in the instant we are not together.

I’m a simple man of one mind, of one
thought. Separate us and I am undone.

Sonnet 93 – Banked

2006-02-16T19:40:00.000-08:00

Place your hand upon my chest and feel the
heart that pulsed and prayed for you. Though it beats
now no less strong, it does so more for me,
sustaining passion banked for future needs,

against the coming days of loneliness.
Look into my eyes and you will still find
there my love for you, though it’s burning now
less urgently and grows more cool than kind.

In you I found sweet springtime in the heart
of autumn. Now, with true spring approaching,
I find my leaves have turned. We live apart
and I have grown cold, anticipating

my personal winter. Not even one
day passes when I do not seek the sun.

Sonnet 92 – Mourning Love

2006-02-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

You slide in behind me, breasts to back, then
drape your arm over my side and glide your
hand across my chest, remembering when
there used to be more brown hair than gray here.

Rising on one elbow, you lean down to
buss my temple, trail your lips along my
neck then whisper “Good Morning, Love” while you
roll me to my back and kiss me. Your eye

reflects first sunlight and my first smile and
you begin to move against me. Astride me
now, you seek my worship. You understand
my need for you and my need to be free.

I long to spend my life simply loving
you – touching, trusting, denying mourning.

Sonnet 91 - Shadows

2006-02-14T01:16:00.000-08:00

The same full moon shone for both of us, cast
shadows against the darkness tonight. We
both looked on her and wondered, as clouds passed
across her face, how our lives could possibly

be more cruel and complicated. How could
two souls born for epic find themselves bound
to daily obligations when they should
be free to dance together? When I found

you, I was certain I’d learned the answer
to every sorrow, that I would not feel
loneliness again. How will I ever
find my faith now that wounded hearts will heal?

I know only that I love you, that this
day should have ended with you, with your kiss.

Sonnet 90 – Valentine’s Day

2006-02-14T00:21:00.000-08:00

You deserve roses every day.  There
are times that I forget, though, and days when
no flower would be enough.  You’re a rare
woman, a creature of such uncommon

grace and beauty that there’s no measure
for your worth.  That you would find in me some
small portion of joy gives me pleasure
and fills me with wonder.  I should welcome

any morsel of your affection, yet
I desire all your love and pray you trust
your soul to my care.  My deepest regret
is that I did not find you, love you first.

You deserve roses, but I can only
promise my love and my fidelity.

Sonnet 89 – Here For You

2006-02-09T21:52:00.000-08:00

I long to move you, to fill your sleep with
dreams that make you reach for only me and
to be there when you reach – not for the myth,
but for the man.  When other folks demand

too much of you, sap your strength and leave you
hollow, shaken, tired - let me hold you near,
and restore you to strength.  Let me renew
your faith in friendship:  I will be your ear

when you simply need to speak.  I can learn
to be the husband you hunger for - the
gentle lover who aches to make you burn
before you cry and lie to rest by me.

I’m made more by surrendering to your
needs – it’s lack of loving that makes us poor.

Sonnet 88 – I Am Yours

2006-02-05T22:58:00.000-08:00

I’ve never not loved women; seems to me
they’ve always been marvelous, lovely.  Yet
I’ve never not loved you, if distantly,
and that is harder to explain.  Forget

for a moment that so many say there
is only one true love for each of us,
that the constant heart lacks room to shelter
more.  I would disagree and not because

disagreement agrees with my desire.
My heart has never felt so small.  I’d lose
myself in other’s arms, but I require
more of me because I love you.  I choose

to be your man – as you need me, how you’ll
have me, when you want me.  I am faithful.

Sonnet 87 – Sacred

2006-02-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

It was meant to be a loving tumble -
merely time for us to play. She liked the
hot, rough love, where limbs and blankets jumble,
leaving us tired, gasping. She leapt at me

with no pretense. I wrestled her to our
bed when she thought she’d have the upper hand,
pinned her arms above her head and kissed her.
Wrapping her legs around me, she rolled and

flipped us. Not even stopping to undress,
she danced above me as I moaned beneath.
In that moment she became the Goddess
to me – Gaea, glory and all my faith.

She was primal Beauty, Love and Life.
Then smiling, she kissed me, became my wife.

Sonnet 86 – I Don’t Need You

2006-02-03T06:23:00.000-08:00

I can live without you.  I lived alone once
and I was happy then.  No need to share
my supper and never shushed for silence,
my life was my own and I didn’t care

what others thought of how I lived.  I don’t
need you to fill my arms.  Other lovers
would be happy to hold me, though they won’t
fit like you did.  Even under covers

and in the dark, I would know your perfume
and each of your curves and your hollows.  I
smell you, see your stamp in every room
where we shared joy and laughter.  So I‘ll lie.

I don’t need you.  If I say it often,
I may believe that I’ll find love again.

Sonnet 85 – Surrender

2006-01-31T11:25:00.000-08:00

Surrender yourself to our love once more.
Rest your ankle on my shoulder while I
massage your calf with hands and mouth.  Let your
fear wash through you:  feel it flow far away

as my desire grows, enfolds us both in
our only true home.  Sit in my lap and
let our eyes meet – they’ll hold such sweet passion
suspended between us that no demand

could be denied.  Move with me as you move
me; make me mad to free you.  Hold me, lead
me on to promises that only love
can keep.  Know that I want you, that I need

to please you as no other ever has
or will.  Don’t let us long for “never was”.

Sonnet 84 – Haunted

2006-01-31T00:25:00.000-08:00

You found me ruggedly handsome that day.
I’m amazed by what you saw in me, how
you always knew precisely what to say
to make me feel a man and more.  I know

I won’t be him again.  I remember
bittersweet moments from the brief time we
spent as “us”.  I loved you slowly, spoke your
name like a psalm while you held me tightly

to your breast, our breathing hot and ragged.
I watched you move about the room and I
discovered grace.  When you kissed me, I could
almost believe you were mine, that we’d buy

our way to freedom with passion.  That man
lies here haunted and hurt, lonely again.

Sonnet 83 – Down, Not Done

2006-01-30T16:06:00.000-08:00

I can do this alone.  I have before
and I can and will again.  That much, at
least, is left of me.  In reaching for more,
I became ungrounded and forgot that

I have limits.  Dreams get damned and dreamers
lose sleep like anyone else.  I’m down, not
done, though.  Heartbreak, loneliness, anger, tears?
Bring them on.  They can stoke the rage for what

comes next.  It’s time for battle, one epic
gained for an earlier epic lost.  Now
is the time for a cold head, the classic
striving of passion versus sense.  I know

this much:  if hope no longer has a hold
on me, I lose nothing by being bold.

Sonnet 82 – Shattered

2006-01-30T10:17:00.000-08:00

I could no more resist you than I could
surrender breathing.  When I look at you,
I lose all thought that any woman would
so fill me with longing again.  We two

become the sweetest one:  we fit truly,
naturally.  Lying side by side - your
hand stroking my shoulder, my back - we see
home in each other’s eyes and ache for more.

We love profoundly in such dear, small ways:
two hands, two hearts touching; kisses light
and sweet or sharp and hungry; an embrace
full of urgency and need.  Just the sight

of you slays me, shatters me.  I will miss
you terribly, Angel – I will miss us.

Sonnet 81 – Anniversary

2006-01-26T16:04:00.000-08:00

The eighteenth passed, unremarked by all but you
and me.  That is really as it should be,
though – this wasn’t the month that others knew
as ours.  We measure things differently.

Why should we limit ourselves to one day
per year when we can have so much more?  So
every eighteenth is a holiday,
a chance to celebrate, to once more show

our thanks for the fortunate finding that
led us to a deeper love and truer
friendship.  Each bright day I want to know what
beauty looks like at first light, discover

new joy as I wake with you.  I cannot
find a day fair if you’re not part of it.

Sonnet 80 – Pictures

2006-01-25T00:36:00.000-08:00

I’ve never enjoyed looking at others’
pictures.  I know it’s considered rude, yet
I feel no joy in some other mother’s
children.  Why should I?  I’ll never forget

my own golden moments - those bright, shiny
seconds spent chasing after my own life,
while stumbling upon fortune with all my
fantasies intact.  You are the true wife

of all my hopes and dreams, and I can see
you clearly if I close my eyes and call
on you.  I thrill to your face above me
as you lean down to kiss me sweetly, all

the stars in our country sky gleaming through
your hair like diamonds cast just to crown you.

Sonnet 79 – Save Me

2006-01-25T00:08:00.000-08:00

I have never needed saving.  Before
you came, I knew only dull days, gray smiles
and cold beds.  Where there’s no worth, there’s no fear
of loss.  You reached for me across the miles

and lonely years and spoke sweetness like a
promise.  It was your kiss that freed me and
the warmth in your eyes that taught me to say
“love” and “free”.  How could I know they’d demand

so much of me?  I would never have thought
joy would carry so high a price. And yet,
I’d not give away love so dearly bought,
nor surrender to threat or fear to get

through even one dark night with false comfort.
I’ll risk all to earn your love and your heart.

Sonnet 76 – Everything I Never Wanted

2006-01-15T12:54:00.000-08:00

You were everything I never wanted.
I was looking for an older woman,
wiser than girls in the ways that mattered
so to a foolish and hungry young man.

I wanted someone more intelligent,
a woman without the obligation
of children or the need for them. I meant
to be the center of her attention,

the answer to all her need. Instead, I
found and fell for you – young, the mother of
two small children. You were smarter, though; by
taking me into your world, teaching me love

on a larger scale, you freed me, released
me to learn what I wanted most meant least.

Sonnet 75 – Beautiful By Moonlight

2006-01-14T00:10:00.000-08:00

You were beautiful by moonlight, kneeling
beside me on our bed.  With one warm hand
you caressed my cheek, my neck.  Then, leaning
down to kiss me, your hair became a kind

curtain, draping our faces in soft, clean
silk and perfumed wonder.  You taught me the
marvel of your mouth as your lips met mine:
full and yielding, yet yearning and hungry

just for me.  Your eyes met mine and, for one
moment, I saw the Goddess – fey, feral
and pale perfection – all that men have known
or sought.  The moment passed and I found all

that I had longed for lying by my side:
Goddess no longer, but my heart’s true bride.

Sonnet 74 – I Miss You

2006-01-13T13:14:00.000-08:00

I will tell you as plainly as I can
that I miss you. No day is complete if
I cannot hear your sweet voice. No woman
could hold me so dear, could promise a life

filled with the laughter and bright longing that
you would bring to me with each new morning.
I thrill to see you – I remember what
you wore the last time we touched. Just holding

each other - arms around the other’s waist,
brows touching as we rubbed noses – brought home
how lonesome this would be. One kiss, one taste
of your love to last me and you were gone.

In all my waking thoughts, you are here. We
never know sadness. I am not lonely.

Sonnet 73 – Ashes

2006-01-10T23:20:00.000-08:00

Forget metaphor and allusion – these
are black days and demand plain words, cruel words,
savage thoughts. I have no desire to ease
or salve any other’s pain. There are hurts

so deep that there’s no relief without dark
damage done in kind. I should be a good
man, noble and giving, but there’s no spark
of grace or mercy in me. If I could,

I would rip and tear and rage and reduce
the wide world to something meaner, something
more like the mad-drunk man I feel. Seduce
me with caring? It won’t mean a damned thing.

No matter. Dreams don’t come true and wishes
go wanting. Lost love tastes just like ashes.

Sonnet 72 – Watching You

2006-01-08T22:50:00.000-08:00

I could study you a lifetime and I’d
never lose my sense of wonder or the
joy I find in you each day.  Playing hide-
and-seek with the youngest, seeing that she

has shed her shorts again as she runs down
the hall naked and shrieking with glee, your
face is full of mommy-mirth as your own
laughter chases after her.  Never sure

that I’m not watching you, you go about
your day now with little care for what I
may see.  Unguarded with me, there is not
a thought or emotion that does not fly

directly to your eyes, show in your face.
You’re all I know of beauty, all of grace.

Sonnet 71 – Ask Me

2006-01-08T18:06:00.000-08:00

Ask me to name each of my sins – be my
confessor and my friend and I will tell
you all, despite the risk that you would fly
from me in disappointment or fear. Tell

me that you want me to storm the gates of
Hell: I will be your larger than life man
and fight my way through any darkness to prove
myself worthy, to take that foul domain.

Ask me to hold you when your day has been
lonely, to write you poems and songs or
to carve a heart with our initials in
an oak tree. I’ll do all of this and more.

But do not ask me to stop loving you,
Bright Angel – that I cannot dream to do.

Sonnet 70 – Hungry Hours

2006-01-07T14:38:00.000-08:00

There is nothing now to distract us:  no
kids or calls, no irritating clothing.
Nothing but me and thee, Bright Angel, so
let these brown, wild eyes speak everything

to you that you long to know.  Let these two
hungry hands soothe you, please you, shape and shake
the coming hours for pleasure.  I’ll hold you
tightly, face-to-face, show you how I ache

for you, let you feel the heart that beats and
burns for you alone.  I’ll make you feel that
you are beautiful beyond telling, then
give you such sweet reason to believe it.

Later - kissing, clutching, striving – we’ll win
our way through to the place where we are one.

Sonnet 69 – Whimpers

2006-01-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

You whimpered first when we kissed our second
time.  Your mouth met mine with such sweet force, your
lips and tongue all the treasure I could want.
But hungry eyes and hands promised me more

of warmth than I had ever dreamed or known.
You snaked your leg around me while we stood
unevenly, clutching and crushing one
another, seeking sweet balance.  No word

speaks so clearly to me as what you do.
Your every action screams bright longing
and a desperate yearning for one true
moment of joy and completion.  Writhing,

our mouths married to heat in need, we move
as one toward release, still fearing love.

Sonnet 68 - Last A Nighttime

2006-01-06T02:05:00.000-08:00

I’m looking for love to last a nighttime.
Long time, life time, forever – they’re too far
for me to reach.  When I get you home, I’m
not going to be able to see more

than now and again.  I want to learn how
you look by candle light, how your body
moves with mine.  I’m going to see you throw
your head back in passion, make you hungry

for more.  In the morning, I’ll watch you wake
and stretch and shine.  One sweet dawning dance done,
we’ll drink coffee on the front porch and make
plans to see us through lighter hours.  And when

our day is done - before that evening’s through -
I’ll want to steal another night with you.

Sonnet 67 – My Best Friend

2006-01-05T07:20:00.000-08:00

When we are apart, I’m made less by more
than half. You don’t just meet me where I live;
you complete me, make me whole. I adore
you and I'm avid for your love. I’d give

you all of happiness for the grace you
have given me. No bride ever moved her
man to such extreme passion, dancing through
darkness to light. Still - holding you after

the dance ends, joking while you make coffee,
or talking on the porch while the dog wakes
at our feet – then I know my full heart’s joy.
Twice loved by you, I’m more - your friendship makes

me so. How blessed to see each sweet day end
with my dearest love being my best friend.

Sonnet 66 – The Down Side of Good

2006-01-03T16:04:00.000-08:00

As you grow older, your eyesight seems to
sharpen. You see lines I’ve never noticed
near the eyes that taught me love. You say you
have put on too much weight – I guess I missed

that. I swear to you that the face which haunts
and heals me has not aged, though I’ll humor
you and say it has. You say that Time taunts
you, makes you feel less than you were before.

Before what? Before Love? She is timeless,
ageless – just as you are to me. I joked
that you were on the down side of good. Yes,
you are older – I know because I looked

at the calendar you read. Please forgive
me? You walk in beauty and always have.

Sonnet 65 – Always Know Springtime

2006-01-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

You came to me without make-up, your hair
swept off your shoulders in a pony-tail.
I had never seen you more fine or fair
or lovely. When my eyes finally fail,

I’ll carry you so deeply burned into
my mind that I will always know springtime.
Without the aid of sight, I picture you
even now and can trace the gentle line

of your jaw, the nose that nudged mine in love.
When I hear your voice, I know precisely
how your face is set. The eyes that could move
me to such savage need still burn for me.

When I lay me down and turn out the light,
I dream you here, hold you, kiss you good night.

Sonnet 64 – Unhomed

2006-01-02T22:26:00.000-08:00

My heart is unhomed. Once steady and true,
I founder now, never coming nearer
my center than “there”. When I first found you,
I thought I’d never know a false sail or

a black night. Your eyes were all the stars I
needed to guide me to sure, sweet comfort.
In your arms I found a haven where my
spirit could know sanctuary, a port

proof against any gale. Now you are lost
to me and I know no kind current, no
compass. On any dark sea, a storm-tossed
sloop will bear a man without a base to

unsafe harbor. I long for your light hand
upon the wheel until we’re clear to land.

Sonnet 63 – Her Turn

2006-01-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

I was not expecting to hear the word,
though I had been longing to know you love
me and that you are my man.  If we would
have had complete privacy, there would have

been no stopping us - so much heat.  I want
your affections more than I should.  You show
me the love I have longed for and I don’t
want you to doubt my feelings for you.  Know

that you whisper to my heart, you restore
my faith.  I think of you constantly and
want to pick up the phone just to hear your
voice.  I want to hold you, to place my hand

on your chest.  I want so badly to be
the one who screams as you make love to me.

Sonnet 62 – A Third Way

2006-01-01T19:15:00.000-08:00

I want new options, a clear path.  I’m not
built for loneliness but it seems custom
cut for me.  I need passion and white-hot
hunger.  I long for longing, but there’s none.

Where I should find love, I know distance and
occasional cold care.  Where I would find
love, I can’t - he already claimed your hand.
Damn love and damn obligation!  We bind

ourselves to another in need, never
considering the cost or how cruel time
can be.  The choices I made brought me here
and decisions demand attention.  I’m

caught between the implacable and the
impossible – isn’t there a third way?

Sonnet 61 – Gray Days

2006-01-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

So many cold gray days will pass before
we find our way through this. I already
know more of missing you than I ever
wanted to learn.  Too often, I think “we”

then buckle when I find that you’re not there.
How could you be?  You have a home and a
family, an obligation to share
your days and nights with them.  You and I play

house in stolen moments, knowing that an
hour or an evening cannot be a life.
So we look for some middle way that can
ward us against the loneliness and strife

we find ourselves bound to.  There’s no need to
fear, Angel – gray days or none, I love you.

Sonnet 60 – Happy New Year, Bright Eyes

2005-12-31T23:54:00.000-08:00

I know I’m making you crazy – I have
some Dana Carvey “Chopping Broccoli”
sonnet binge going.  Anything can move
me to start writing and, sometimes, badly.

But, when I take the time to stop and think
on those things which are precious to me, the
field of focus narrows.  My only link
between each happiness is you.  We’ll be

thinking tomorrow on how we should mold
our next twelve months, on how we’ll love and who.
I resolve to support your dreams, to hold
your needs above mine, to truly love you.

I wish you joy and peace and grace this year.
I simply hope that you can find them here.

Sonnet 59 – Annie, Chasing Gophers

2005-12-31T22:56:00.000-08:00

You’ve never seen Annie this way, and may
wish you never had. Tail in the air, her
head, her neck and her shoulders tucked away
beneath the ground, she’s chasing a gopher.

Strange, silly beast, my Annie. Backing out
of the hole she dug, she cocks her head, perks
her ears and starts some mad bouncing about
the yard. Like a canine Tigger, she poinks

place-to-place, trying to chase her prey to
a piece of soft and shallow soil. The soul
of manic mining, her paws claw through
the earth and she dives into her new hole.

Puppy-sure, she won’t worry for the field -
she knows that some holes don’t need to be filled.

Sonnet 58 – Bound

2005-12-31T22:00:00.000-08:00

It’s curious the control I ceded
when I first called you “Love”, when I set my
path by your star, your light.  Firmly seated
in the soul of me now, you wonder why

you’ve the power you’ve attained, and that so
effortlessly.  Where is the price, what cost
to carry?  You wield the force to damn, to
delight with a word.  How could one as lost

as I am in you wear your yoke so free
of fear?  Happily, for the yoke’s a brace
that supports both of us, binds you to me
as it binds me to you.  I chose to place

my faith in you, and my strength.  Bound, I am
more free than when I wore a lonely name.

Sonnet 57 – Arcadia

2005-12-31T21:08:00.000-08:00

A southern woman with southern charm, a
sure talent for moving men, and the most
captivating eyes, sweet Arcadia
never meant to snare me.  But I was lost

the moment I met her.  One shared glance, one
smiling tilt of her head and I could no
longer claim my will my own.  She had won
me, made me hers just as surely as though

she’d paid my passage.  Without the power
to resist her, I set my mind to the
only course I could conceive.  I wooed her,
showed her an image of such beauty she

could only succumb.  My words were mirrors
set before her, the image seen was ours.

Sonnet 56 – New Year’s Eve With You

2005-12-31T15:33:00.000-08:00

Everything’s so clear after a country
rain, the sky newly scrubbed of soot and smog,
the wind smelling fresh and green and healthy.
New Year’s Eve is for champagne, not egg nog,

and tonight those bright bubbles will water
your eyes and tickle your nose as I hold
you to me.  I’ll be washed by the laughter
of the same dear lady that I once told

I’d stand beside forever, if she’d have
me.  Only hours now till the clock chimes
a fresh start.  A week ago, we made love
savagely, fiercely, after Santa climbed

the chimney.  This night, while children sleep, we
will love each other slowly, eye-to-eye.

(Companion to Sonnet 34)

Sonnet 55 – New Year’s Eve Without You

2005-12-31T13:25:00.000-08:00

God, how I miss you today. There’s a hard
wind blowing a cold rain from the south-east -
what a wretched metaphor for my heart.
I find I love her most whom I’ve loved least.

Hours away from the turning of the year,
I sit alone and wonder where you’ll be
tonight, how you’ll celebrate. My fear
is that I’ll not come to mind – not briefly,

not at all. You’ll be with him, as you should
be, as custom requires. I’ve never known
such jealousy, such lack or loss. I would
nearly rather not love you, need you, own

any piece of your heart. We should be one
when the clock strikes and a new year’s begun.

(Companion to Sonnet 35)

Sonnet 54 – Tell Me

2005-12-31T11:39:00.000-08:00

Tell me that there is no place for us, that
we are somehow wrong. Make me believe you
could set aside your hunger, could forget
how perfectly our two souls meet, renew

us, sustain us. Tell me that your head does
not fit in the hollow of my shoulder.
Deny your eyes light for me, say shadows
shade my way. Say that, as we grow older,

you would be content to see my empty
chair by your cold hearth. Tell me that your heart
does not ache with need, does not break for me.
Say you’d be happier living apart.

Tell me these things truly and I will leave.
But I will still love you and I will grieve.

Sonnet 53 – One Perfect Word

2005-12-31T00:29:00.000-08:00

You have no confidence in the power
of your speech.  I don’t get it.  When you speak,
I know exactly what you mean, I hear
my needs precisely met.  When I feel weak

or frail, you find strength to share with me and
words to make the sharing real.  Only one
woman has ever said “you are my man”
and caused me to believe that I could win

any height - that was you.  If I write a
phrase, a line, or a verse that rings true to
the ear, it was guided along the way
by my desire to serve you, to please you.

You are what poetry aspires to be:
one perfect word, framing love perfectly.

Sonnet 52 – Fascination

2005-12-31T00:27:00.000-08:00

I am fascinated by the small of
your back.  You’re not surprised, of course, but you’re
not disappointed, either.  I do love
the way you are made: fine, fair flesh and pure

pleasure to the touch.  You lie quietly
on your stomach, lovely hair hiding an
equally lovely face.  Gently, I lie
on the back of your thighs while one warm hand

slides up the length of your neck, fingers now
laced in your hair.  My lips and tongue and teeth
begin to explore you, to best learn how
to make you mad and mine.  Writhing beneath

me, you free yourself and shove me roughly
back and down, then rise above me, lovely.

Sonnet 51 – I Like You

2005-12-31T00:25:00.000-08:00

Have I told you lately that I like you?
Not “love you” – with us, that is understood.
My love for you feels boundless, always too
great, too vast to be captured with a word.

But liking you? That is something I might
manage. Your company’s a joy to me.
I sit on the front porch with you as night
falls and lightning bugs begin their dance. We

talk about our children, joke and laugh at
whatever comes to mind - it’s fun to make
you giggle. Annie competes with the cat
for your attention - you pet her and take

Gelli into your lap. I understand
their attraction – you are my dearest friend.

Sonnet 50 – Thank You

2005-12-30T13:24:00.000-08:00

I was dismal dark before I found you,
my words shut-up and silent.  Even then
I had to love you quietly, to know
you only in secret, till one sharp pen

stroke freed you, freeing me.  Suddenly I
found my faith again and bright, clear music.
New words welled up, demanding voice and they
found it in you.  My pen’s no longer weak.

My choices are my own and I’m content
to claim them, just as I claim consequence.
I lingered too long in shadow and spent
too many years in pride and false penance.

You’re all of joy and life that I’ll ever
need or know and all of love I desire.

Sonnet 49 – Tall Boots and Blue Jeans

2005-12-30T11:42:00.000-08:00

My lady wore tall boots and blue jeans and
not an eye that didn’t follow her as
she moved.  But she’s mine tonight – all woman,
all fire and fun and full of feral grace.

Lord  - how she shines and how I burn for her,
how I melt.  She smiles warmly, sows a sweet
promise that I long to claim.  Her laughter
is bright and sharp or low and full of heat

as the mood requires.  Later, when we’re home
and I no longer have to wait, - the jeans
and boots and frillies strewn about the room -
she comes to me and whispers “my man”, leans

into me and writhes and dances and cries.
There’s just one love reflected in her eyes.

Sonnet 48 – This Time The Russian

2005-12-30T08:10:00.000-08:00

“Ya tseluyu tebya I ya lyublyu
tebya, vsegda…” and the phone line went dead.
That was my wake-up call. I never knew
her love again. The night before she’d called

and asked me over – “please”. Week after week
we’d grown in friendship – we talked every
day for hours so that I could learn to speak
her tongue. Any topic was fair game. She

would start with books or music or romance
and I’d have to follow – it was a great
way to learn. At her home that night her hands
and mouth taught other truths, nearly too late.

She called from the airport. Her last words were:
“I kiss you and I love you, forever.”

Sonnet 47 – A Stroll Through Our Park

2005-12-29T22:48:00.000-08:00

One evening after twilight, we took a
stroll through our park, you on my left, your arm
slipped through mine. I taught you how in past days
a man would defend his lady from harm,

how he’d guide her behind him with his left
hand just as he drew his sword with his right.
We walked boldly along our path, your soft
hand cool beneath my own.  From light to light

we moved  - we sauntered through shadow with no
fear.  Later, your legs twined about my waist,
you pulled me to you, looked on me with so
much love that I could not speak.  I learned trust

and true protection in my lover’s eyes
that night and found redemption in her cries.

Sonnet 46 – Bath Time

2005-12-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

Home late – again – I find the lights are off,
the kids asleep. But I hear “Carencro”
playing in the bathroom. Candles cast soft
shadows against the wall and I find you,

covered in bubbles. One long leg surfaced,
your hands trail along the limb that I so
badly burn to travel. Boo! I’ve surprised
you! You squeal and blush, then slide low, as though

to hide that fairest feast from my hunger.
Not tonight, Love. You’d think I’d never seen
such beauty. I go to my knees, linger
just a moment before I wrap you in

my arms, wet wonder that you are. Could this
ever be less than fun? Giggling, we kiss.

Sonnet 45 – Time To Time

2005-12-29T15:35:00.000-08:00

Time to time, I find myself missing you.
I wonder where you are and if you think
of me. Do your arms ever feel as though
they can never be filled without me? Thank

God and Gaia that you loved me and that
you love me still, if absently. It’s in
the margins that we’re marked. To know just what
your hand feels like stroking my cheek; to win

a wink or your kiss; to watch you crinkle your
nose in joy – these things brand me yours alone.
I’ve felt how you love me, how the fierce fire
of you reaches out to me, calls me home.

Time to time’s more frequent than now and then.
And, time to time, I hope we’re one again.

Sonnet 44 – Fight For Her

2005-12-28T22:46:00.000-08:00

Her parting kiss tasted just like goodbye.
Too stubborn to let it stand, I chose to
fight for her, never caring of cost. I
watched, I thought, I planned. Late at night, I drew

dark strength from jealousy and hatred. Coiled
to spring, I finally saw my love’s pain,
her fear. Unmade then and shattered, I snarled,
raged at God and all that she was mine. MINE!

Dylan Thomas be damned – if I do not
go gentle into love’s good night, the one
that I have longed for goes down instead. What
then is left for me? Nothing. I’m alone.

I’ll fight for her in quiet ways – uphold,
defend, speak life until my tongue goes cold.

Sonnet 43 – An Ending

2005-12-28T18:47:00.000-08:00

I was her “larger than life man” – she told
me so. Now I find that I have to be
larger than love, too. Love did not grow cold,
but “can’t”. Too much to risk and too many

to be hurt - she was always more noble
than I was. And more practical. She could
count true cost where I could only hobble
toward a truth. Left to ourselves, we would

have known all of love in less than a life.
I am dark-drunk and damned - dangerous now
only to myself. I ache for her - wife
of my heart, true bride of all my days. How

can my joy be full if not filled by her?
That life is ended now. Done. Through. Over.

Sonnet 42 – I Would Have

2005-12-27T15:42:00.000-08:00

I would have made that woman my wife and
her children my own. From the moment I
looked on her, I knew that I was less than
whole. She saw the need in me, wondered why

she should be my answer. Fidelity’s
a fragile thing – some kisses are no threat
to a marriage run cold, while wanting me
held peril that knowing others did not.

I would have made love with her - fierce, hungry,
impassioned. Then slowly, gently – eye to
eye and heart to heart. Love words whispered, the
sweet promise of us becoming one - two

souls pledged to ages but living, loving
now. I love her still; distantly, grieving.

Sonnet 41 – Things That Bring Me Joy

2005-12-27T13:01:00.000-08:00

There are so many reasons for joy, so
much to be happy for. A partial list would
include: a strong wind, early morning snow,
cognac in my coffee (Martel is good),

and time with my kids (no particular
order there). Listening to Mark Broussard -
now that’s a gift. Homemade apple butter
spread on fresh-baked bread is its own reward.

Snuggling in a thunderstorm; watching dogs
or horses run for running’s sake; mountain
lakes and pine trees; good books; flaming Yule logs -
all perfectly lovely and all mundane.

It’s a wide world - so little’s truly new;
So little time left, so very much to do.

Sonnet 40 – Dancing With You

2005-12-26T13:01:00.000-08:00

I extend my hand to you, a silent
invitation to come and dance with me.
No words are needed - you and I were meant
for moments like these. Moving eagerly

from the table to my arms, you flash a
smile so full of sweet promise that no man
would doubt you love just him. As I press “play”
our song resumes - so does our dance. Between

the kids’ “ew, gross” and “aw, man” I fall in
love again. Your small hand in mine, my arm
around your waist, I lean forward, begin
to sing to you. Your eyes hold me - so warm,

so deep, I find myself lost in loving
you. We kiss while the girls watch us, giggling.

Sonnet 39 – Empty

2005-12-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

It rained hard this Christmas evening. I loved
the storm when I could spend my nights with her.
Rain and games and Irish coffee once moved
her to play me. Her wild, whiskey laughter

was throaty and warm, full of dark promise.
So brazen – my tigress, my temptress – she
slipped off her sweater, leaned back and smiled. This
woman, this wicked wonder, taunted me,

challenged me to meet her need with my own.
Soon, clothes were scattered and we found our way
through stark, hungry passion to a dance grown
true and sure, more loving than lost. This day,

though, I’m alone and she’s home for Christmas.
Hollow, angry, I fill my empty glass.

Sonnet 38 – Silent Night

2005-12-24T14:58:00.000-08:00

I cut a sprig of mistletoe this year
from our dying walnut tree. Looking for
you and hoping to steal a kiss, I hear
your voice down the hall. As I stand in our

daughter’s door way, I see you, softly lit
by the bedside lamp, rocking her to sleep –
again. She won’t rest, so three times you’ve sat
with her, singing “Silent Night”, bringing deep

dreams and peace. You are a miracle to
me: mother, bright angel, temptress, and my
friend. Closing the door on childhood dreams, you
lead me to the couch; I drop the sprig. We

cuddle now and watch “White Christmas”. Kissing
you and snuggling close, I count my blessings.

Sonnet 37 – Small Time

2005-12-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

I would love to write you in epics. You
would be bright glory, I would be your shield.
I’ve chosen sonnets for their limits, though,
not for their scope. I’ve learned that I must field

a finer phrase, try to capture moments
instead of ages. Words I choose to write
are vital – they must suggest the torments
and victories won, must people one white

page in one hundred forty syllables.
So I try to write of instants which can
communicate the whole. Whispers, troubles,
love words, Love’s ways and yours flow from my pen.

I may not write you a novel. But brief
scenes, bound by love and you, could write a life.

Sonnet 36 – Blue Athena, Variation 2

2005-12-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

Openness is something men don’t really
understand the way you do. I am your
man and hope I would think differently.
I want you to be confident and sure

of my desire for you, my willingness
to learn any new depth or dimension.
In private, I’d be clothed in tenderness,
yet fierce, eager, avid - rife with passion.

In public, I’d be epic, larger than
life. I’d be thunder, sparks and fire to ward
you – there would be no threat my protection
would not deny; I’d be your shield, your sword.

My devotion, your generosity -
both conspire to make a new man of me.

This is the second variation on Lovely P’s sonnet for Blue Athena. Used the same challenge words, but went back to the cave for this one. We all want to be heroes to those we love. Her challenge words were tenderness, generosity, sparks, openness, passion, depth & devotion.

Sonnet 35 – Christmas Wish

2005-12-23T19:00:00.000-08:00

I love the way you smell on me.  You rest
your head on my shoulder and, long after
you have left me, your scent lingers.  The best
moments of my life – those filled with laughter,

true love, and deep, abiding joy – are those
stolen moments spent with you.  It’s been too
long since I held you, kissed your lips, your nose,
your throat.  Home with husband and children, you

cannot know how I miss you, how I ache.
Believe that you’re the true bride of my heart,
the dream that I could never find in sleep.
I can’t endure another day apart.

If I had one Christmas wish it would be
that, this cold Yule, you would be here with me.

Sonnet 34 – Christmas Gift

2005-12-23T17:41:00.000-08:00

It’s just past midnight, the children are asleep.
Santa Claus has come and gone - the milk and
cookies are long gone, too.  You wink and leap
into my arms to bite my lower lip,

then spin and run the hallway to our room.
God - I love to watch you move!  As I close
the bedroom door, you grab me by the arm
and push me back against the wall.  You lose

yourself in loving me and, in losing,
wrest sweet control.  Have I been a good boy
this year?  Never better than in moving
you to our bed, driving you down to joy

and through and on to one.  Your final cry
lifts me to final passion and frees me.

Sonnet 33 - Blue Athena, Variation 1

2005-12-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

I wanted someone to laugh with, to share
tenderness and warmth. I wanted one man -
one true man - to hold me, tell me that there
would be days of passion; something more than

one night, false sparks. I could not have dreamed
it would be you - so disarming in your
openness, so quick to laugh. And it seemed
to be just for me. Both ready for more

and willing to risk all, you came to me,
dressed in sunlight – one man, all mine, so right.
Seems we’d never not known each other. The
depth of your love amazes me. At night,

sweet generosity leaves me undone.
You are my only name for devotion.

The Lovely P’s sonnet for Blue Athena. Took a risk here and tried to write from the woman’s perspective. Tough work for a caveman, but she told me to leave it as it is, so I will.

Sonnet 32 - For the Lovely P

2005-12-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

Bright mystery and soul-mate – you’re all of
life to me, my heart. Time beyond time I
dreamt you. So long alone, denied your love,
I will not lose a minute more. The sky

was the only home to such beauty in days
passed. Empyrean fortresses barred the
way to lesser men’s questing need - their pleas
fell on star-stuff and dark infinity.

Blessedly unheavened, my one answer
to every desire – temptress, goddess mine -
you hold me, hearten me, warmly whisper
that we are one. Sensuous, luscious, kind

and all of grace, you urge me ever on
to sweeter striving and greater passion.

“This was written at the request of a dear friend for his fiancée (the lovely P). She’d had a diving accident at 22 and ended up in a wheelchair. When she turned 30, they found each other and love found them. Love’s not blind – it just looks deeper for its own reflection. And it saw itself in these lovers’ eyes. A heartening, hopeful, happy story and only one of many such waiting to be written…”

Sonnet 31 - Center of Our Storm

2005-12-20T00:49:00.000-08:00

The rain is falling gentler now, the wind
a mere whisper of its former voice. You
sleep softly, head in my lap, and remind
me that all my dearest dreams lie here, too.

Dressed only in your over-sized fuzzy
sweater, you are a wonder, a marvel
of beauty, shaped and molded just for me.
My hand glides down your side. I let it dwell

just a moment at your waist, then hover
and rest on your naked hip. Hours ago
the leading edge of a cloudburst swept over
our home. Lightning filled your eyes – you do so

love the thunder. Two souls, one writhing form,
we found peace in the center of our storm.

Sonnet 30 - Now To Sleep

2005-12-18T18:29:00.000-08:00

I want to fall asleep beside you, but
only after too much naughty, sweaty
fun. I want to watch your eyes slowly shut
against night as you slip into dreams. We

seem to fit so naturally, so
right. I love your face in repose, your skin
all silky soft wonder. Your jaw line, not too
distinct, invites kisses and you begin

to giggle and writhe, then push me away,
only to pull me close to you again.
We snuggle down now and you brush the gray,
straight hair from my forehead, kiss me, and then

roll over to let me spoon you. So fine
to know the woman lying here is mine.

Sonnet 29 - One Word

2005-12-18T14:01:00.000-08:00

I want only one word for beauty and
would need no more. Your face was fashioned so
that I could learn glory and grace. Your hand,
reaching out to me, says that I should know

more of you and all of sweet joy, as well.
Your smile sweeps through me, clean and clear and bright,
restores me. Do you recall how we fell,
how you unshuttered me, taught me delight?

Love is far too small a word for what I
feel from you, but it’s all my lips can speak.
I hunger for eloquence, wonder why
my tongue must be so poor. And so I seek

surer speech for beauty, joy and love. Who
would have known that my one true word was you?

Sonnet 28 - Nobility

2005-12-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

I miss you terribly. To be silent
when I know you’re loving him, to smile when
we meet - but not too warmly - is torment
beyond the telling. There would be less pain -

though felt sharper, deeper – if I turn and
walk away forever. But I long to
touch you, hold you. I’ve no right to demand
your affection, but I would and I do.

I don’t want to guard my tongue too closely
when others speak of things I should not know.
I want to hear you cry my name when we
make love. I want to walk with you, kiss you

in public, yawn while you try on new clothes.
Nobility is a burden I’d lose.

Sonnet 27 - Perfection

2005-12-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

I love you. Too-small words for such great need;
still, they're all I have. Questing souls conceive
infinity, then buckle when the field
shows itself too big to name. To reprieve

our quailing minds, we take snapshots and think
them true. These photos, our words, serve up the
universe in small frames. We can not blink
or we lose the whole. We know what we see.

Perfection is absolute, static, cold.
As rigid as bone, it can never know grace.
Our flaws make us accessible. The gold-
brown fleck in your eye enthralls, denies peace.

It’s imperfection that makes us lovely.
I love you truly, if imperfectly.

Sonnet 26 - Perfect For Me

2005-12-16T20:33:00.000-08:00

You worry on your weight again. You’re sure
that you’re more, so less, than other women.
I have never seen you a pound over
lovely. A more discriminating man

might say what is wrong with your hips, your thighs,
and why. I can only tell you that hips
should always be shaped just so, and that size.
When I lie beside you and kiss your lips -

my hands traversing tummy, ribs, and side -
I rise to one elbow, marvel that such
beauty lies here. I knead your thigh, the white
wonder of your flesh so firm, yet soft, lush.

The ideal woman always left me cool.
You are perfect for me, or I'm a fool.

Sonnet 25 - First Grief

2005-12-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

Ineffable sadness suffuses me.
As days are years we had lived a long life.
How should I be happy? I am lonely,
lorn, bereft of warmth and hope. The true wife

of my heart is gone from me. Years I sought
her, shattered my soul against any shore
to reach safe haven. Through darkness, I fought
free to joy, to love, to light. She was my sure,

calm harbor – bright beacon, embracing me
with limbs fashioned just to give me shelter.
That port is closed now. Gone home to you, she
must abandon me. One night I felt her

heart beat against my breast. My one word of
truth, she left to honor earlier love.

Sonnet 24 - Sacrifice

2005-12-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

She was never really mine though, for a
time, I hoped she’d be. She was all my soul
and all remains. But each new sunlit day,
that bright lady wakes by you as you roll

out of bed to begin your work, never
knowing Beauty as she would know you. Not
one for sharing warmth, you’ll never shiver
as cold sorrow pursues you. You forgot

what magic waits in those arms, that smile, those
eyes. I’d shake you back to passion for her
sake. We all deserve love. It only grows
in the giving and she deserves better.

If I were blessed with that lady’s clean, pure
devotion, I’d return to her, love her.

Sonnet 23 - The Dance

2005-12-15T08:24:00.000-08:00

No children tonight, no interruptions.
You ask me to build a fire, kill the light
and to cancel dinner reservations -
you say that we will be eating in tonight.

Later, meats and cheeses set aside, you
dip your middle finger into my wine
glass, paint my lower lip, then lick and chew
and tease. Wine long gone, your tongue - battling mine -

wrests sweet discovery; whimpers, whispers
and moans all our music now. You rise up
and I pursue – my hungry mouth captures
one warm breast. My goddess writhing – enough...

Heat, need, perilous passion, sweet romance -
no longer new, I would not miss this dance.

Sonnet 22 - Early On, Believing

2005-12-14T00:42:00.000-08:00

I do so deeply love you - always did,
always will. Bold promise for one so new
to your life. I would have both of us rid
of remorse and loving truly. I do.

I am your friend, your champion, your life-mate:
I will keep you safe from harm. When you dream,
go sweetly, knowing that no fear, no threat
will breach the walls of this kind keep. I am.

I would be the true husband of your heart,
would lose all to be lost in you. I could
wake next to you a lifetime – that so short –
and know no greater joy than you. I would.

I do. I am. I would. So many years
I searched hopelessly. At last, I am yours.

Sonnet 21 - Home With You

2005-12-11T15:11:00.000-08:00

You sneak in behind me, then slide your hands
into the pockets of my sweats, hug me
and whisper “Mornin’, Lover”. All demands
on my attention swept aside, I free

myself and spin around to catch you at
arms’ length. Early morning lovely, PJ
pants and a t-shirt clothe my silky cat.
I squooge you, get your coffee, start my day

with all of beauty that I’ll ever need
or know. I want to hold you, protect you,
dance with you in daylight. Your love has freed
me from lonely darkness, made my life new.

I want to watch you sleep, kiss you softly
on the forehead and whisper “Dream of me”.

Sonnet 20 - Nannie

2005-12-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

Mary Eleanor bore two strong sons out
of wedlock in 40’s West Virginia.
“Nannie” to me, I never heard her shout
or bemoan the hard road she’d purchased. A

lady for ages - so was my grand mom
to me. She taught me to walk on the street
side, open the door, to offer an arm
to any woman, whether small or great.

It may just have been that none was there to
do those things for her, but she felt them right
and proper. I was Nannie’s boy, would do
anything to please her. When I turned eight,

we moved out of her house. My own son would
help with your coat, would feel it right he should.

Sonnet 19 - Mighty Pooh

2005-12-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

The mighty Pooh thought he was a lap dog –
85 pounds of honey-white basset
hound – sweet and stubby and dumb as a log,
he’d scramble into the recliner, set

his great head on my thigh and sleep while I
scratched his ear. I loved that dog. He was made
for winter. His tiny legs, just as high
as my small hand, propelled him, unafraid,

through three-inch snow drifts until he’d founder.
The barrel chest would strive against the weight
of the pile he drove before him. He’d tire,
though, and back-track home to me. Often, late

at night, we would lie on the floor and eat
peanut M&M’s, huddled close for heat.

Sonnet 18 - Finding You

2005-12-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

I’ve loved you all my life, it seems. In dark
days I called to you, but did not know your
name. In sadness and shadow, any spark
of light’s a beacon, though no path is sure.

Love calls to love and so we found our way
to a common ground, more by chance than choice.
I had no defense against such beauty.
You were taken, too. First to find my voice,

I selfishly claimed love and prayed you would
stay and talk. To learn I could be the one
you sought while you were still seeking love should
have broken me, but I was not undone.

Your love found late is at least love found. This
was my first halting step toward happiness.

Sonnet 17 - Move Me

2005-12-10T16:16:00.000-08:00

There is an attitude in your movements,
a rich promise. The effortless feline
grace, the sinuous sway – a cruel torment
of invitation – both serve to remind

me of late night strivings and of daylight
seductions - these last lost to dull duty.
I love to watch you walk to me while light
from candles, purpose placed, softens beauty

and preludes shadowed sharing. Love must walk
just so. Your breasts swing free of their silken
restraints as you kneel astride me. No talk
now, but heat and need and two hearts fallen

before the magic of our dance. I yearn
to know you fully - where I don’t, to learn.

Sonnet 16 - Words

2005-12-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

Words are wondrous to me. Malleable,
they twist and stretch and bend to fit any
need. Properly met in verse, they’re able
to inspire, embitter, delight, deny.

Some are stillborn – such verses will not stride,
cannot speak to any heart. Though conceived
with care, sent forth with beggared father’s pride,
they have no spark and cannot be received.

Others, now, will wind their way down to deep,
darkened places where they arouse ardor,
embolden lovers, bid ill-used dreams sleep.
You are far more wondrous to me, greater

in glory, than any verse. Words are what
I’m given, though, to share my love, my heart.

Sonnet 15 - Cold

2005-12-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

There is no hope in Spring – no warmth, no light.
New leaves - new lies - the land’s awash with green
and anguished growth. All seems hale and whole, bright
with the promise of verdant joy. It’s been

a long and lonely season and I need
some sign that ice will not be all my glade.
My dreams have found me lacking. No words read
true - my thoughts are unhomed, my faith unmade.

Find me, free me, heal me – I would not know
Night forever. Grief has been my mistress
so long that I cannot think she would show
mercy now, nor permit kind Love’s redress.

Fresh hope was all the boon I asked of Spring.
I’m mired in winter and warmth’s found wanting.

Sonnet 14 - Variation 2

2005-12-10T00:03:00.000-08:00

Here by the fire, we’re safe from the ice and
snow and wind tearing through the town. I take
your glass and set it on the hearth. Your hand
glides down my chest. Shifting your blouse, I make

room for my questing lips and tongue to roam
the landscape of your neck and shoulder as
I seek that spot where one kiss makes you moan.
Forbidden to all but me, your love has

freed me from restraint. Passionate, feral -
nearly frightening – your need drives me beyond
myself. White-hot, wet-hot, we strive and fall
and fly; take, then surrender, higher ground.

At the end - exhausted, exultant, free –
you pull me closer, whisper love to me.

CG's challenge words: passionate, fire, ice, tongue, wet, hot, forbidden
Note: Same words for Sonnet 13 – This is probably the one she hoped I’d write.

Sonnet 13 - Variation 1

2005-12-10T00:02:00.000-08:00

Annie’s nose nudges my hand like ice on
the skin. I’m instantly awake. She knows
our room is forbidden to her. I yawn
and stretch. Annie leaps into bed and grows

ever more insistent that I play. The
passionate pup thinks your side of the bed
is hers. All tongue and tail and energy,
she gives me a wet sloppy kiss. Planted

on my chest, she nips and yips and makes me
her own chew toy. Hot doggy breath is not
an early morning treat. I wrestle free
from Annie’s manic tussling. She’s shot

through with excitement. It’s time, though, to fire
up some coffee and hope the puppy tires.

CG's challenge words: passionate, fire, ice, tongue, wet, hot, forbidden
Note: same words for Sonnet 14 - I was being wicked, because I knew she wanted one a little...personal.

Sonnet 12 – Morning Coffee With You

2005-12-08T01:23:00.000-08:00

On the front porch drinking coffee, wrapped tight
against the cold and Annie at our feet,
I reach across to take your hand, sunlight
dancing upon your skin. No smile so sweet

or healing to me as yours, Love. Annie
growls at passers-by. Younger, she would have
given chase, unconcerned with whether she
caught them. The chasing was what she most loved.

A black blur, she’d shadow crows across our
farm. Their altitude was nothing and joy
was all. Now, older, she watches, wards her
keep. Once, I thrilled in chasing you, but my

first, best happiness was the catch. Your smile
speaks life to me. Stay here with me a while?

Sonnet 11 - Futility

2005-12-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

Plasmodesmata?! What sweet, sick sadist
would challenge me so? How to find comfort
in my pen when such a thing’s required? Dust
is all I know of it. I must resort

to prayer, I think. I pace my cold hallway
like a monk attending vespers, but no
serenity finds me this troubled day.
No merciful muse fights through darkness to

shed illumination. Translucent dreams?
Not for me - there are none that shine. I fear
imminent collapse of reason. It seems
I am not the bard I would be. So here

I stand alone against the poet’s charge:
How to wrest rhyme from ego grown too large?

Piratepurple’s challenge words: vesper, translucent, plasmodesmata, lapse, merciful, joy, comfort, serenity

Sonnet 10 - Faith

2005-12-07T08:03:00.000-08:00

You always seem surprised by my pride in
you. I know your sacrifice, can count
your cost. While worthy beyond the telling,
you doubt. As your emotional debts mount,

You feel un-treasured, impatient with your
progress, all chances lost. Others flourish -
no rose is too sweet for them. Sad and sure
that no sharp thorn will not be yours, you wish

for change – a revolution. I would give
you diamonds if I could. But diamonds are
dollars and those in short supply. They thrive
in others’ homes. So I write for you. Fear

should be forsaken. My words, my one true
coin, purchase faith, that faith breed hope in you.

Alwaysjbj challenge words were treasured, impatient, diamond, rose, revolution, home, sacrifice