Green Hills Press
Nashville, Tennessee
www.greenhillspress.com
© 2010 Francis Martin
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cataloging-In-Publication Data
Martin, Dr. Francis A.
Love Notes: Unwrapping the Gift of Intimacy; Smashwords Edition
Published with the services of
Grave Distractions Publications
www.gravedistractions.com
Cover, Interior Layout, and eBook Formatting:
Brian Kannard
Love Notes
All of us who know love understand that love is always a multifaceted human experience. Love excites us. It confuses us. It stirs hope within us. It frustrates us. It inspires us. It tests our limits. It arouses us. It creates visions within us. It heightens our vulnerability. It intensifies our needs. It complicates our lives. It gives us meaning. And so much more.
The “snapshots” of love that are presented here intend to capture the many aspects of love, but with the understanding that even the largest set of snapshots cannot capture all of love that most of us experience.
Love Notes say what many of us feel but find difficult to say, when we love someone and want to tell them that we love him or her. They give us a way to offer romantic interest from the heart.
My hope is that you will enjoy each note.
Love notes! Enjoy. Enjoy! Let your love shine!
Dr. Francis A. Martin
Table of Contents
A Beautiful Balloon
A Feast of Caring
A Fine Day
A January Day
A Nice Ass
A Picnic
A Place by the Fire
A Quiz for You
A September Morning
A Simpler World
About You
Amateur
B. B. B.
The Big Umbrella
Believe in You?
Born Again
Butterflies
Can You Hear Me
Come
Come Play with Me
Come to Me
Count on Me
Crumpled Sheets
Dance
Danger
Days Come and Go
Dedication
Differences
Do You Mean Much
Draw a Line
Dusk Love
Eat Well
Embrace
Even If You’re Sane
Everything Right
Fancy Balls
Fever!
The First Time
First, Some Music
Forever Together
Free
Free Woman, Free Man
Freedom for You
Friend
Get Rest
Glances and Squeezes
Good Morning
Goodnight
Grand Marnier
The Grander View
Gratitude
Hair in Love
Hairy Tails
Harmony’s Quest
Have You Ever
Heavenly Love As We First Knew It?
Hello
Help Wanted
Hold Me
Honest
Honesty
Horny Is
Houseboat
How about Doin’ It?
How Do I Love You?
Human Relations
I Breathed Fire
I Do
I Give You Me
I Love You
I Thought of You
I’ll Be Yours
IF
If You Love Me
Important People
Inhibition
Just Before Valentine’s Day
Just Me
Let’s Play Light
Let’s Share
Let’s Speak
Let’s Talk about Second Chances
Life
Light of My Life
Lines Come To Me
Listen to the Rain
Looking at the Moon
Love at a Distance
Love in Winter
Love Jumps
The Love Makers
Love Motion
Love Now
Love Quotes
Love. Black.
Make a Life
Making Faces
Matterhorn
May I Love You?
Money
More
More Than Pleasant
Morning Light
My Experience of You
My Mind Raced
My Mirror
My Teacher
Needs Met
No Better Way To Watch
No Other Way
No Problem
No Sex
The Now of Knowing Another
The Old Mailbox
Our Tree
Past Counting
Pictures
Pinnochio Is the Proof
Pleasure I
Pleasure II
Pleasure III
Pleasure IV
Poem
Promises
Quake
Questions
Questions,More
Reflections on Meeting You
Romance
Secret Vision
Secrets
Seeds
Shadow Crasher
She Loves Me
Shout at Me!
Show Me What Love Is
The Sign
Sparkle!
Start Packing
Stoking the Fire
Strong Lives
Surrounded
Thanks for Sharing
The World Is Mine
Then, We Can Play
This Day
This Is Your Time
This Way
This Weekend
Thoughts of You
Time and Love
To Experience the Wild
To Listen and To Hear
To Talk with You
To Try Again
To Write Ourselves
Together
Tour
Trick or Treat
Want to Whittle?
We Are Quiet
We Both Know It
Welcome to a New Day
What Do I Have To Say?
When We Touch
Where Love Meets
Whipped Cream
Whispers
Why Me?
Wildest Dreams
With You
Wonderful
Worn Boots
WOW!
Writing Notes
You Add Color
You Are
You Know What I Mean
You-ness
Your Body
Your Love Shines into Me
Your Strengths
A BEAUTIFUL BALLOON
Want to get hot?
Where do you want to get hot?
How about in a hot air balloon?
Would you like to soar
in a hot air balloon with me?
Would you like to soar
in a soaring hot air balloon?
Would you like to get hot
way up there in a hot air balloon?
Imagine what fun we would have
sailing around way up there
uncovering ourselves to each other,
taming the chill with our steamy passion,
and lighting the whole earth
with the love-hot glow
of our hearts and bodies in union.
Hot. In a beautiful balloon.
A FEAST OF CARING
Please come in.
Welcome to my life.
Please know that love welcomes you here
now as it did when I first felt love for you.
You are free to be yourself
and to ask of me
that you may put yourself in my care
as I put myself in yours
and as I become more free to be myself.
I will take care with you,
just as I will take meals with you.
We might even thing of our togetherness
as a feast of caring,
a real sumptuous, delicious spread
of love and of living.
A FINE DAY
It was the second of June, a fine day for a wedding.
It was a hot afternoon, a find day for a wedding.
It was hustle and scurrying, a fine day for a wedding.
It was family everywhere, a fine day for a wedding.
It was a lot of friends, a fine day for a wedding.
It was flowers galore, a fine day for a wedding.
It was anxious ceremonies, a fine day for a wedding.
It was solemnity and fun, a fine day for a wedding.
It was minister in charge, a fine day for a wedding.
It was many nice gifts, a fine day for a wedding.
It was congratulations, a fine day for a wedding.
It was handshakes and smiles, a fine day for a wedding.
It was hugs and kisses, a fine day for a wedding.
It was cake on top of cake, a fine day for a wedding.
It was music and dancing, a fine day for a wedding.
It was tears and joy, a fine day for a wedding.
It was night and a new marriage, a fine night for two.
It was new places and new sensations,
an adventure of a lifetime.
It was a really fine night.
A JANUARY DAY
A cold, gray, forbidding January day.
The sun poked holes in the grayness twice
and not for very long each time,
a taunting call to see something beautiful,
to think something different from darkness.
Once was around noon, as best I recall.
And once was around sunset, or thereabouts.
The day almost achieved a smooth fade
from heavy gray to dark black,
but some form of consciousness
that needed to reach my mind and heart
broke the sky open with fingers of light
that mixed gray with brilliant colors,
as if someone were opting to defy
and to shout “no” to the darkness.
A cold, gray, forbidding January day.
The message in my head repeats itself
like a honky tonk song on the radio:
“Slow down to a crawl, take it easy,
and pretend that you don’t care.”
If I don’t care for you, I am pretending.
“Slow down to a crawl, take it easy,
and pretend that you don’t care.”
I am pretending so that I may appear
not to care for you on this cold day.
I am pretending because I am afraid
of the cold, gray, forbidding risks
that come with giving love to you,
even when I know that you are the light
that gently enters and warmly embraces
my darkness and shouts “no” to it.
A NICE ASS
When I heard
the hushed, soft swishing
of your bare feet
moving through the deep hallway carpet,
not knowing for sure that
these sounds broadcast your entry
into our bedroom,
I hoped that you were coming.
You were.
You did.
You look good.
Touch me.
You have a nice ass.
A PLACE BY THE FIRE
This is a great place to be right now.
Warm feelings in the warm glow
of a hot fire late in the evening.
As peaceful and as quiet as can be,
with only the sound of the fire.
This is a place and a time
for thoughtful contemplation.
To think and to feel about things.
To be real about all things,
without having to be high
or low about any certain thing.
To take the moment to be.
Just be, as the livingness
of life washes over my being.
Just be and to see what surfaces
within me in this special time.
Warm. Thoughtful. Peaceful.
Moment. Think. Feel. Wait.
Be.
You.
You. You.
You. You. You.
I feel more now
about you
than I
can
conveniently
express to you
You. You. You.
I love
you.
A PICNIC
A fall picnic with you,
when the cool crispness
of the bright noontime air
pulls us close together
while we dream together
about all the nice things
that love calls us to dream,
helps us to see our love.
Hot chocolate is a good drink
to remind us of our need
to warm ourselves again
in the love we offer
each other as best we can,
while the high happiness
of love shared openly
calls us to discover
what we already know.
Love is life’s picnic.
A SEPTEMBER MORNING
A September morning with you:
A gentle light, a light that matches
your intimate character, touches
everything and softens everything
it touches, as if embracing life.
You warm me and I warm you,
as love knows its own heart.
Our touching brings inner warmth,
too, forbidding words to interrupt
the silent magic of the moment that
assures us of the enduring strength
of our bond, always forever and new.
One of us moves and stirs the other,
but who cares or counts who moves
and stirs an ever warmer response
in the other, and ignites a mutual desire?
We kiss, approving of the new day
together, and kiss again, desiring
more that quiet warmth promises.
Warmth is overcome with heat
like a thick but freeing blanket
that surrounds our molten touching.
I give myself to touching you,
making you even warmer, while
you give the same love to me.
Love, strong, active and very hot
makes its way into the world today,
to shout the praises of new life,
to show the courage of life becoming.
We do this. We make love.
W make life. We shout loudly,
“Love and life are wonderful!”
without saying the first word.
A SIMPLER WORLD
The secret of nature’s world,
A world in harmony with itself,
Rippling water
Burning sun
Singing birds
Surrying squirrels
Blowing breezes
Drifting clouds
Bluing sky
Falling snow
Smiling faces
Buding flowers
Ripening fruit
Loving lovers
You and I.
The secrets of nature’s world,
a world in harmony with itself.
You and I.
A QUIZ FOR YOU
Quiz Name ________________________
Please, think carefully as you can, as you work your way through this matching
quiz. Match the items on the left with the items on the right.
_____ poet 1. rhyme
_____ diver 2. water
_____ cook 3. food
_____ potter 4. clay
_____ captain 5. troops
_____ banker 6. money
_____ physician 7. medicine
_____ rider 8. horse
_____ runner 9. track
_____ reader 10. book
_____ desk 11. chair
_____ tree 12. leaf
_____ candy 13. sweet
_____ builder 14. blueprints
_____ driver 15. car
_____ pianist 16. music
_____ pen 17. ink
_____ ocean 18. fish
_____ writer 19. poem
_____ pilot 20. airplane
_____ bed 21. pillow
_____ love 22. love
_____ parent 23. child
_____ woman 24. man
_____ you 25. me
ABOUT YOU
What about you? What do I love about you?
I love your hands
When you touch me with a massage that
Melts my tension or arouse me and exploit my tension.
I love your eyes, of course,
Because you look at me with love and captivate me
When I look at you.
I love your walk
And the way you wiggle your hips and sway your
Breasts when you wish to keep my attention.
I love your lips
When they touch mine with the warmth that
Only loving lips can feel and share.
I love your “I love you,”
Because your voice splashes with affection
And dazzles me with realness and warmth.
I love your private parts
Because they share intimacy with mine
And bring unsurpassed pleasure to me and you.
What do I love about you?
All of your parts. All of you.
I love you.
AMATUER
May I be an amateur
with you
You may be an amateur
with me!
Amateur comes from the Latin
amore, meaning “to love.”
For its earliest users,
It referred to those
“who do something
just for the love of it.”
With you and for you,
I am not a professional
nor the opposite of that,
whatever that may be.
I am lover, first.
An amateur. Amateur.
Loving just for the love of it.
You are easy to believe,
an honor to be with, and
a friendliness who invites discovery.
Love is for amateurs.
May I be an amateur
with you?
B. B. B.
Lookout! Sh-h-h-h-h. Quiet!
A belly button biter is loose!
A belly button biter?
Yes, of course, a belly button biter.
Please, you must be careful.
A BBB really won’t hurt you, though.
In fact, he really doesn’t bite at all.
It’s not really a bite, but more like
a nibble. Well, maybe, it more like
a major league tickle.
It doesn’t hurt, really.
It might drive you crazy, though,
but crazy only in the best way.
So, be warned. You might laugh
so hard that you will lose your breath,
but you always get it back.
Or, maybe you will pee on yourself.
Can you tell that the BBB is fun?
Fun? Sure. Fun is the game.
More than fun, though, the BBB
is a terrific turn-on, a blast of
fiery, quivering expectations
of the beginning of the great race
for screaming, unremitting pleasure.
You see, the BBB seldom stops
With BBB-ing. He is also skilled
at nibbling on ears and fingers and lips.
Once he starts, he can’t stop
with BBB-ing.
And, once he starts,
you can’t stop, either.
Scared? Excited?
Please, don’t be scared or excited, yet.
Just watch my lips.
BELIEVE IN YOU?
Believe in you? Do I believe in you?
I believe in you
because you show diligence in protecting our resources.
I believe in you
because you drive with care that protects everyone.
I believe in you
because you give attention to your friends.
I believe in you
because you take good care of your self.
I believe in you
because you keep your self looking good.
I believe in you
because you share your secrets with me.
I believe in you
because you place honesty above recognition.
I believe in you
because you believe in me.
I believe in you
because you perform as a superb mom.
I believe in you
because you place family above all others.
You make it easy to believe in you.
Above being a star or driving the best cars,
over dollars and signs of importance,
you value me and others you love.
THE BIG UMBRELLA
Listen, it was a silly survey.
No one meant to find anything
important. It told us what we know.
The three hardest things to say:
“I love you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m wrong.”
Sensitivity is a matter of survival.
Finding those things hard to say
points to a lack of sensitivity.
You and I have grown hardy,
capable of survival at its best,
as our commitment to honesty
and to caring often shows
in many different actions.
Let us feel the softness within us
and between us
that feels of vulnerability
but never of threat.
Let us feel the strength within us
and between us
that feels of power
but never of threat.
Listen, it was a silly survey, maybe.
But, when we need to,
let’s say “I’m sorry.” “I’m wrong.”
knowing that the big umbrella
under which all of this fits
is love.
“I love you.”
BORN AGAIN
When you are most honest,
fearfully removing your mask,
showing your distortion-free self,
I am close to you, intimate,
brave, good, excited, knowing,
as if I have seen and felt
the secret of all human existence.
When you are most honest,
You give me permission to be,
and I accept myself as I am,
a hidden-ness wanting to be found,
a mystery wanting to be solved,
a friend wanting to b friendly,
and a lover wanting to be loving.
When you are most honest,
be assured that you will find
a home in my honesty with you.
I shall keep your honesty safe
from every urge I may have
to use your precious, private self
to my good and to your harm.
When we are truly honest,
we give and receive life,
as if somehow we are born again
and free to grow more naturally.
BUTTERFLIES
Butterfly One. Butterfly Two.
Butterfly Three. Butterfly Four.
Butterflies. Four. Big ones.
More color than I can count or describe.
More beauty than I can consume.
Butterflies. Four.
In their presence, little else matters.
They command attention because they are,
not because they want or need it.
Do they need me, to be beautiful.
No. They can fly without me.
They can be beautiful without me.
They can be butterflies without
my small abstraction “butterflies”
and be all they need to be,
“butterflies, without me.
But I need them.
Without them,
without their butterflyness,
my world lacks . . . , well,
the butterflyness they bring.
Likewise, without you
my world lack . . . “youness.”
CAN YOU HEAR ME?
take your time now
love can happen to you
take your time, though
you can’t boss love around
you may find love, but
love is more likely to find you
love is both silent and loud
you strain to hear love shouting
love calls for you for no reason
listen, can you hear me, love
love will run loose in your head
love will bring you to your knees
with love, you feel like flying and
as if you may have just crashed
love crosses your mind, but
sometimes doesn’t leave a trace
love leaves you empty and full
you gain life and lose your self
love sets you free for a big life
and takes you captive for life
love speaks through the daze
of certainty, pure madness
love suspends us between
the earth and the sea
Love, can you hear me?
COME
Come,
get up early with me
to watch the mother cardinal
feed her brown-beaked babies
and tell us that life is to live.
Come,
sit on this rock with me
and listen to the wind
make holy sounds in the trees
and stir our hair and our awe.
Come,
ride your bicycle with me
as I ride mine with you
and feel the pleasure of riding
another trail together.
Come,
live a book with me
about intimate things, but
more about love and sex.
Then, we’ll put it on paper.
Come,
Let’s make friends with the evening
When the time is ours
To ove each other
And make our best memories.
Come.
COME PLAY WITH ME
No one taught me
to tie a tie.
I don’t know how I learned to do it.
When I had to,
I did it my way.
Since then and long before, my way
seems to dominate
my mind’s landscape.
My way meant that my needs retired
to a secret spot
deep in the woods
Where solitude gave comfort and safety.
Now, many ties beyond
doing simple things alone,
I have mastered the fine art of aloneness.
Comfort and safety
are gone, however.
In their places, my needs plead loudly
As inner voices do,
To leave the woods,
To share and meet another’s needs
that plead loudly
for a good place,
Loving, hospitable, mutual, nice.
Come, play with me
Out in the open
Where two can run freely and see far.
Come, play with me
and share yourself
where you way and mine are one way.
Come, play with me,
as I play with you,
making a new life for both of us.
COME TO ME
Come to me,
Let me know you found me;
Hold me close,
Wrap your arms around me.
Come with me,
Know that I’m around you;
And I’m whole,
Now that I have found you.
COUNT ON ME
When you are tired
after a heavy, long day,
count on me to let you rest.
When you are sore
after stretching your body
too far and too long,
count on me to ease your pain.
When you are hurting
after losing something or someone
close and important to you,
count on me to hurt with you.
When you have failed
after giving it your best.
count on me to know what it’s like
and to let you know that
you can never fail with me.
When you are angry
with me—yes, even with me—
count on me to hear your anger
as best I can, knowing
that you love me and
that I love you.
When you are sick
and your body won’t work right,
Count on me to feel your pain
and to be your nurse.
You can count on me.
CRUMPLED SHEETS
Crumpled sheets all around you
And love poems that surround you
Tell a story that makes us smile.
Crumpled sheets stained with sweat
And desires that aren’t finished, yet,
Cause us to reach out and touch.
Crumpled sheet reek of passion
That will never go out of fashion
Because we are pleased to keep it.
Crumpled sheets reveal real action
And pleasure that brings satisfaction
That calls us to do it again and again.
Crumpled sheets let us sigh and rest
After giving each other the very best
Of what laundering can never remove.
Crumpled sheets tell us how we feel
And how we eagerly with to fulfill
Hot and sweaty and durable love.
Crumpled sheets speak of our fate
With noisy kids who keep us awake
Because this is love’s best destiny.
DANCE
Would you dance for me?
Yes,
you, would you dance for me?
Would you dance naked for me
and drive me up the wall
with exploding passion?
Would you dance naked for me,
letting yourself display love
with your well-proportioned body?
Show yourself.
invite love for yourself
with every part:
beckoning breasts
hospitable, hot hands,
tantalizing tongue,
alluring lips,
and so much more.
Would you, yes you,
dance naked for me?
C’mon, want to dance naked?
Remember, if you dance naked,
don’t be surprised if you
dance alone for only a second
or two.
DANGER
You have communicated
your sense of danger
about too much too soon.
Well, okay,
I accept that, but
how many years are too soon?
The more I know you
the more I understand
your sense of danger
and the more I appreciate
your interest in much more
for yourself
than body contact
or formal agreements
could ever give you
or me or anyone else.
So, get all you can
for yourself from me
as I get all I can
for myself from you.
That is, all that’s good
and that makes for more good.
Together, we can quiet
your sense of danger—and mine.
Together, we can give birth
to joy, hope, and love.
We can discover that
danger is out there,
never between us or from us.
Love can lead the way.
FEVER!
Your temperature is up?
Let me get a thermometer.
No?
You don’t need aspirins?
Let me unbutton your blouse
to help you to get cool.
I’m getting closer?
Well, let me take off your blouse.
Oh, you really want to take off more?
And, you desperately need me
to take off some things, too?
Oh! Okay!
Now, you take off something else.
Now, something else.
Now.
Now.
Wow!
When you’re hot,
I love it!
DAYS COME AND GO
Days come and go.
With you, they are never routine. They are open to adventure, along with episodes of seriousness and electric love.
Days come and go.
Each time I stop to think about what I really need, I come to the same conclusion each time. I need you.
Days come and go.
We have traveled far and feel excitement about the rest of the adventure. We cuddle as closely as we can and look at a imagination-filled future.
Days come and go.
The sun greets our days. The stars decorate our nights. The moon sets the mood for private moments. Dusk and Dawn evoke reminiscences and anticipations.
Days come and go.
With us, love’s light burns warm where we make our bed and share our meals and keep a home and protect the precious light, all as an endorsement of life being its best self.
DEDICATION
Your needs walk to me on steady feet
and silently like a moonset that is
full, bright, and subtle. Dedication.
Your voice speaks about aching hip joints
that demand notice now after
passing a child into life. Dedication.
Your questions rise and fall, deftly
challenging every idea and person,
but never fall on me. Dedication.
Your child poses as a picture of love
that gives life to all who know her
as love received. Dedication.
Your kindly smile incuses hope
about an ever welcoming home
from now to forever. Dedication.
Your needs walk to me on steady feet
and meets my needs that walk to you
on steady feet. Dedication.
Bright and beautiful moonset. Aching
hips. Penetrating questions. Love child.
Kindly smile. Needs met. Dedication.
DIFFERENCES
So, what’s the difference?
Yeah, what’s the difference, anyway?
Good questions, right? Okay. Well, . . .
Some things are not different, you know.
You have toes. And I have toes.
You have knees. And I have knees.
You have vertebrae. And I have vertebrae.
I have eyes and so do you.
Well, this could go on forever, almost.
but let’s get to the point.
So, what’s the difference?
How about this: What you touch
on me with your hands is different
from what I touch on you with my hands.
And what you kiss on me with your lips
is different from what I kiss on you with mine.
The difference, when we get down to basics,
is seen and felt in breasts, balls, and buns,
as well as in penis and pussy.
And so on.
The differences. We have much alike.
But our differences speak of needs.
I need you and you need me.
Our wonderful differences
bring us together.
Bodies, hearts and minds together.
So, what’s the difference?
The difference is fun
in love with itself.
DO YOU MEAN MUCH?
You have helped to free me
from ties that trapped me.
An exciting me, a good me
pops out of myself each day
and shouts, “Damn, I like me!”
But the center is not me.
No, not me, it is life.
I am alive, and living,
a true story of livingness
made and being made more.
Do you mean much to me?
I am alive, and living,
a true story of livingness
made and being made more.
DRAW A LINE
Samson Cleopatra
Napoleon Juliet
Romeo Delilah
Anthony Michelle
Barak Josephine
Draw a line from the lover on the left
to his lover on the right.
Go ahead, draw five lines.
Let me give you some hints:
As Sam said to Del, “Aw, cut it out!”
As Tony said to Cleo, “You’re always barging in here.”
As Romee said to Julie, “Headache? But we’re lovers!”
As Big “N” said to Jo, “Waterloo is nothing. Let’s eat.”
As Bar said to Michee, “I am a man who has risen.”
You are really good at this kind of quiz.
But you need to draw one more line.
Draw a line between you and me.
Keep it there.
Keep it there
for the rest of your life.
DUSK LOVE
Dusk. Trees. Gray. Near black.
Silhouettes. All is silhouettes.
No color, except gray.
Feelings pull away from me
into the universe-big vacuum
of nothingness-sameness-grayness.
What is the meaning
of dusk-time without someone?
Appear, someone! Snap!
Nothing.
All seems empty.
Trees move,
swaying against the near-black grayness.
And I watch,
wondering whether the bigness of my emptiness
stretches me to match
the bigness of the emptiness around me
and pulls me so thinly that I disappear.
I disappear,
knowing that I may not re-appear
and that you and I may not feel close again.
And the trees and I disappear
against the blackness of night.
EAT WELL
The message is simple:
Eat three healthy meals each day
and try to make them tasty.
Any questions?
So, why don’t you eat three healthy
And tasty meals every day?
H-m-m-m. Just as I thought.
You need to know that your failure
To eat well brings consequences.
Consider the consequences:
You will watch all episodes
of “Nature” on Public Television.
You will trim your toenails
With a very dull chain saw.
You will apply a bumper sticker.
“God is My Co-pilot,” to every
bare inch of your new car.
You will tie a red t-shirt around
your lovely ankles, while I
vigorously tickle you.
Well, you get the idea.
Now, are you going to eat well?
Remember, I have in mind
many more consequences.
So, before you consider sleep,
what would you like to have for breakfast?
EMBRACE
Again and again,
as surely as my
next breath comes,
I think of you
holding me holding you,
a wordless embrace
that lasts a long time
and that fels whole,
wonderful, and good,
a big loving oneness.
EVEN IF YOU’RE SANE
Good Monday morning.
I love you in your silence.
I love you in your pain.
I love you when you’re fun.
And I’ll love you when you’re sane.
These lines just popped into my mind
as I drove to work this morning.
And, while I started them with a genuine need
to say something serious, I arrived at the last line
without a rhyme. So, “sane” shouted
for attention and got it. Of course,
you could always make the case
that my idea about loving you
when you’re sane shows my need
to get you to promise that you will love me
when I get to be sane.
Who knows?
Have a nice day,
even if you’re sane.
EVERYTHING RIGHT
Seldom is everything right in life.
Everything seemed right, though,
When I realized that you loved me
And that you were not supposed to.
You weren’t family, back then.
You were a girl I liked.
You were a girl who commanded my attention,
without apparently wanting to command anything.
You were a girl who seemed special.
I had to have you,
but was not sure why or for what.
I was driven more than confused,
aroused more than thoughtful,
focused more than ambitious,
lustful more than understanding,
momentary more than hopeful,
selfish more than generous,
expectant more than needy.
You are family, now. You are a woman I love.
Still, you command my attention,
Without apparently wanting to command anything.
You are a special woman who is special.
Still, I have to have you. Still, I am
Aroused focused, lustful, momentary, selfish, and expectant,
But now so very much more.
You can still swing my soul with yo-yo delight,
But also bring depth of meaning to every day.
You can still stir dreams of beautiful fun,
But also take care of life-building business.
Seldom is everything right in life,
But we have come really close, haven’t we?
FANCY BALLS
Certainly,
You area cultured
and refined person.
You seem to know
what to do,
what to say,
and what to wear—
all with exquisite timing
in every situation.
What, if I may ask,
should a lady
of your high class
wear to fancy balls?
Wait, before you answer,
let me give you some advice.
If they are mine,
wear nothing at all.
THE FIRST TIME
When I see your face
and remember the first time
I saw love for me there,
as you looked at me then. . .
When I see your face
and remember the first time
I saw love for me there,
as you looked at me then. . .
Let me try again:
When I see your face
and remember the first time
I saw love for me there,
as you looked at me then. . .
Why is this so difficult?
Once more. Here goes:
When I see your face
and remember the first time
I saw love for me there,
as you looked at me then. . .
The feeling lives above words.
As you may know for yourself,
The feeling transcends words,
when I see your face
and remember the first time
I saw love for me there,
as you looked at me then.
Just as our love lives above life,
the feeling lives above words.
FIRST, SOME MUSIC
You, my dear, have been chosen,
by unanimous vote,
to receive the bare truth.
Much to the surprise of many,
Hansel and Gretel were not siblings.
Yes, much of their story is true,
including the candy-cake house
and the mean old ugly witch,
although some speculate that
she was really a sex coach.
But do you know their reason
for getting “lost” in the woods?
Do you know what they did
after they pushed the witch
into her own hot oven?
Well, they put on some music.
Then, they popped the cork
on their favorite bubbly,
lighted some candles,
clicked of the lights, undressed,
and . . ., well . . . You know?
Well, actually,
It would be easier to show you.
First, we put on some music.
Then . . .
FOREVER TOGETHER
We may wind up forever together.
What might that be like?
Forever together.
Maybe, the fact of a relationship
with a perfect complexion?
Maybe, the hill of a winter’s
fresh and brilliant snow,
begging us to sled for fun?
Maybe, the look of a loving smile,
inviting us to invest our best
in life’s truest, enduring secrets?
Maybe, the blast of a glory,
a hoped-for repeatable orgasm,
welcoming us to growing love?
Maybe, quiet and shared reflection
On a memory-inviting sunset?
We may wind up forever together.
What might that be like?
FREE
Without you.
Being without you just now
constrains me to feel the distance
as a heaviness,
as a thickness,
like the bond of old leather
laced with age’s traces,
eaten by bugs,
binding but wearing thin.
What happens,
I ask myself with some fear,
when I no longer feel
the distance?
Either, I answer,
I am free from you
or
I am free with you.
FREEDOM FOR YOU
Honest with you?
Yes.
Clear that I love you?
Yes.
Committed to you?
Yes.
A future with you?
Yes.
Excited intimacy with you?
Yes.
All in freedom.
We are free to love,
in the life-giving
stronghold of mutual
adoration.
Freedom for one of us
Means freedom for
both of us.
FREE WOMAN, FREE MAN
Only a free woman
can give herself to a man.
Only a free man
can give himself to a woman.
Free.
No tricks. No games.
No pretense. No charades.
No threats. No coercion.
But free.
Free.
I want to make possible
every day a welcoming one,
surging with opportunities
for you and me
to give to each other
all of the best things
we have to give.
Free woman and free man.
Love and giving.
FRIEND
You did not intend it, I’m certain,
and could not have planned it,
but you required me to look at dreams
I had set aside, parts of myself
I could not find expression for.
You have my enduring gratitude,
as deeply felt as any I have known,
even if everything else between us fails.
But more than looking at set aside dreams
and more than feeling gratitude,
you, dearest friend, have become the dream.
You, yes you, have become the dream.