A new year ~ to spend loving You (longing)

Free Style: No set syllable-count per line, with intermittent rhymes throughout. I warn you, "it's long", but the heart and pen must have their say.

             

  A new year ~ to spend loving You

_________~**~_____________________

How sad it must be

for the cattails and pond,

when lovers who once strolled

are longingly gone;

when chill takes a’hold

on hot Summer nights,

haunting the places

they've loved-in

so long.

A memory caught

of moments e'er free ...

moonlit owls

soar quietly across

the heaven's dark night;

into stardust streams

woven like braids,

ever so tight.

By fortune they met,

tho' love drew them near ...

soft dove to nurse

with the lion.

The willow unfolds

her branches of gold,

while wishes

like ribbons

wove through her hair.

Another year's passed,

each season has gone,

feeling their lives

drifting away;

and, tho' once they were here,

so amazing (I know);

now it's harder

retracing their ways,

to bear loss of

soft words they spoke

deepest in care,

to recall the warmth

of soft, tender breath ...

and yes,

the night's much darker

these days.

Clouds now drift on by,

birds winging high,

they never

come down anymore,

to rest on a shoulder ...

sing gentle songs.

______~**~________________

By-the-by,

oh, how I miss now

thy sweet soothing voice

and apple green eyes.

Mental photographs,

scenes fade slowly, alas;

yet, my soul's deep memory

(it won't forget)

love's endearing,

fulfilling repast.

As the new year appears

new seasons come, too...

as with all our years

there comes a new vision,

a ne'er forgot portrait

of me wrapped-up,

inside of You ~

The pond and the willows,

tall cattails a'sway

longingly beckon,

"Come stroll me,

come share me your dreams."

Once again...

it's "A new year,

to spend loving You ~"

and my heart,

it trades its dark chills

for joy from your charms,

for the infinitely bright,

ever-endearing...

warmth of your arms.

_________~**~_____________________

                    Richard W. Jenkins

                              ©2015

Author's Note

Critical reviews are always welcome and appreciated. : )

Sorry!
I know … it's long, but when a pen's in the moment, it just seems to write on its own.

Reviews

[Jennesis]

'Soft dove coming to nurse with the lion'. What a beautiful image. Such tenderness and vulnerability here, and courage need for both. The flow of warm / cold, winter and summer gently rocks the reader. Natures loneliness personified is fantastic. Oh how I would love to stroll along the pond here.

[Richard🖌]

Gosh, Jenn!
I must have really been a good boy to receive so many of your wonderful reviews, but I surely am not complaining. ; )
I cannot begin to adequately admit how much I agree with you, and how deeply difficult it was to learn to make myself soft-natured and vulnerable … I was always afraid to be that brave. My youth taught me well how to be tough and show no weakness, or what I perceived weakness to be; that which I came to understand were among my greatest strengths as a man. Ah, but how you inspire me up onto the humbling soapbox.
What a thought, to imagine my words rocking you … in such a wondrous voice you speak, and how the pond would love the company of you beside it, Jenn.

A beautiful review — wonderfully inspiring and warming to the senses … thank you! ⁓ Richard

[Jennesis]

Richard!! Oh my goodness, how your path has mirrored mine. As I approached my 40th birthday, I as do many people began this midlife (I won't say crisis) transition. I had been a very independent woman my whole life, never really letting anyone take care of me. My work over the past two and a half years has been about knowing I can be both strong and vulnerable. I don't have to chose one or the other. The process for has been long and full of many grieving days, sobbing in a heap on my living room floor. But I guess that explanation is for another time :) being able to be both strong and is a skill for both men and women we have to have some wisdom to embrace. And the good boy comment made me crack up. :)

[Richard🖌]

Sharing with you, Jenn, is a wonderfully enlightened and growing blessing of joy, bonding, easy and welcome familiarity … thank you for You! ⁓ RJ
PS: Imagining you "cracking-up" has graced me with a very happy smile! : )

[Great Aunt Astri]

Long, but reads so well. I love the original word pictures you use, very evocative. Also like the similes ... woven like braids, wishes like ribbons. Lovely poem with its lovely ending.

[Richard🖌]

Thank you, Astri,
Your words of appreciation, understanding, and praise — a poem within themselves, sweep all through the senses, inspiring and gratifying my humble effort.
Warmest smiles 'n blessings to you! ⁓ Richard

[Cryingkate]

Richard, Your beautiful poetic creations always lift my inner soul to places of the heart and yearnings.
How many times you have I met you near the sunny ponds in my long flowing sheer robes?
How many times have I crossed dimensions and loved with you under the stars? Folding together on soft feather satin dressed beds?
Met you in Ancient vintage gardens of timeless beauty?
How often do you steal my soul?
Beautiful places, Beautiful !
Next time.. can you take me to Emerald City :-)

[Richard🖌]

Aw, Connie!
What a wondrously beautiful review you left me for this lengthy piece of romantic passion.
Next time before I leave I'll let you know and we can fly together.

Smiles 'n hugs, M'Lady … you, too, make an olde bard's heart skip a beat! ⁓ Richard ; )

[jesserose99]

well I am swept away by your whimsical poetry yet again and have no words to describe how I feel other then taken away on a stream of thought. As I feel the poem almost feels...moves...from one thing to another flowing perfectly. There are certain images in my mind that stick out so brilliantly, like being wrapped up inside of someone, and the ribbons of hair, but they are simply parts of the puzzle.

Thank you for this thought plucked from a wordsmith's mind!

[Richard🖌]

Gosh, Jesse!
What a lovely flow of graciously warming words you've left to touch and caress the imagination so softly, tenderly, sweetly.

I love these feelings received from you to inspire my own, for they make writing and sharing such a vibrantly rewarding sensation … warmest hugs to You! ⁓ Richard ; )

[David Scott]

I could not be a critic here you have only my admiration and appreciation. I think there is a misconception people who live and honor love and light block out their sorrows. Here you blend light and dark. You demonstrate how one can know desperate heartache and choose to embrace the love in life.
Gratitude to you my friend.

[Richard🖌]

Receiving such entreating words of gratification from a poet of your stature, Dear David, is encouragement and gratification a hopeful bard can only wish for when he or she lays down their pen, following the final touch before sharing it with their honorable peers and waiting public, aspiring to entertain and please all whom undertake to read their humble efforts.
This, My Friend, you've done for this simple olde bard, and I can only desire these words will thank you adequately for that which you've gifted in return for my earnest labors — it my sincere pleasure to serve … blessings and a most glorious new year to You in all ways! ⁓ Richard

[Kelly Scheppers]

Your pen was indeed "in the moment", and so was my heart. However do you write like this? Perhaps it's your Welsh soul. ...whatever it is, it makes you an extraordinary poet, to me!

[Richard🖌]

It is the voice of my soul made visible in word you see before you, Kelly, dancing with the thrum of love's vibrant music.
Of course, being Welsh doesn't hurt, either, and I most ardently refrain that anything about Me You think is extraordinary is barely as much gratification as this bard's heart can contain.

You bless me all through … thank you ever-so warmly, Kelly! ⁓ Richard

[John Alexander McFadyen]

A highly romantic piece with a mix of the dark fantasy and foreboding of the woods but in the end love that endures. Told in lovely descriptive verses that seem to come from the soul Richard.

[Richard🖌]

Dear John,
Such from your poetic heart makes the efforts of my humble olde pen brightly, but gratefully, blush!

Thank you, my fine poet friend, for gifting your high praise and true inspiration, indeed! ⁓ Richard