Milk and Honey Rhapsody

A novella that melds into poetry. About true love

I

Being with you

            Milk and honey rhapsody

Demystify infatuation with you

Then enters love

And by you

            I am mystified again

Mature as art

Like fine wine

Without love,

We:

            Aged vinegar

Flavors arise regardless

Via time

Disrupt the onslaught of self destruction

            And choose, daily, to grow young together

We grow and welcome this third entity

            This love

Binding us

How about that endeavor

            To decipher the language

            To study the art, to

Become the connoisseur

Squander one’s self when

            Giving to the emergent

 

II

Emergent tremors betray

            Leading to quakes that decimate

Is not what you seek in the 2^nd

            What you sought in the 1^st?

Parting from this life together

            Without you

            Then my being would be departed

Your softest safest spot invaded

            Into your heart

The endeavor devoured me,

            Consuming my all

            Assimilating into your all

 

For true love is between two

To split is to divide that love

Unrequited delusion

I have been deconstructed

            Now redefined

You gave me heart

            I was intoxicated with purpose

Now not detecting much flavor,

            Merely maintaining in this era of neglect

Am I my own single admirer, nurturing my wounds

No consultation to the third entity

My question turns me rhetorical

Answering self, soliloquy

“Seek another?”

 

III

I hold you as you weep

With your sorrow

Your tears roll down my cheek

Your tears become my tears

The opposite of love

Is the guise of love

What is the purpose of the wayward glance?

A quick read, for what information?

Instinct over intent

Something other than you

Driving you

Body facing me

Face turned aside

Effort doubtless partner- appreciation, love, and care

You may like flowers, but have mercy

Your starving garden

You December like frost

End this wicked season

The flowers produced

From that entity created between us

The communication, the connection spills

Confusion sets

Why can she no longer see?

Show her sight again

 

IV

On hypocritical loins

One leaps to another anybody

All the while expending that effort

That investment squandered

Can never have that dirty laundry laundered

Every action leaves an indelible mark

Be it pure or stain

Must we reconvene in our minds and remind our eyes?

Expose its farce:

“Once lost, forever lost”

Not to reconvene, but to convene again and again

Anew and always anew

In those first days, when mystery marked our ways

Unfamiliar to one another’s days

And so there was that union

That crept in our hearts

Out of our eager eyes

Slept in our bellies

Life is hard, love softens

Love hardens when mismanaged

Through self preservation

I connect with her eyes

Then I approach the rest of her being

We take this recognition of each other and cradle it

Considering the great struggle

Coming home from battle

So comforting to return to the sole duty of rest

At home to the arms

Invited by the heart

Binding self to obligation frees me

I am fidelity

            I have faith in us

Every pearl has its price

            What ransom more worth while?

 

V

Physical love is accounted through acquisition

Amalgamation accounts for the spiritual

So to love in this world

We acquire through coming together

Both giving of self

As love has restored us as nebula stars,

Our obligation-

To restore the light when it wanes

Restorative, ever new

Awake in this

Glorious morning

Patiently your passion grows

Energized into the art

And it draws your love closer

More than glittery and glistening, she is luminous

There is a physical manifestation of our third entity

Our love, our life

Replete, let our brackish spirits rise

Through our time together

Your name changes with me

First “enigma, desire”

Eventually “destiny”

And through so many more “Lover”

All these and more

By the day

This final chapter

Is the first of ours

In the break of every day

Turn toward your touch

            Sprinkle petals without thought much

The rapturous fortune

Let us be the everlasting cadre of love

I pledge all this forever and

Ever Afterglow

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

Bloody fabulous says I! The descriptive prowess of your pen shines in this and I feel the truth between your lines. I can tell the verse is born of experience and life and those are always mortal attributes worth studying. Different lives and different experiences allow the reader and the writer in us to grow. Love is such an inspiration worth visiting. I enjoyed this.

[Brad Dehler]

Thank you sir. I am humbled by your beautiful words. So appreciated. I will re-read your review again and again. You are inspirational

[emmajoygreen]

A purposeful meandering, perhaps seeking inspiration at what is, to you, a special time. One you need to spend wisely. To start at the beginning of something that is more than 'something' but a spark you need tp urge into heat, passion perhaps.. then, discover if it is a mutual precious moment and if that is the case, and your near impromptu gallop of emotion is moving you above terrain and floating about almost helplessly. Is it worth it? Seems you want it to be, pray it to be, long for it to be..

'This final chapter
Is the first of ours
In the break of every day
Turn toward your touch
Sprinkle petals without thought much
The rapturous fortune
Let us be the everlasting cadre of love
I pledge all this forever and
Ever Afterglow'

That final word is the match that fires fevers!

[Brad Dehler]

I appreciate your elegant understanding of my poem here. Thank you so much!!! It is definitely an inspired response and I treasure it so. So thrilled you feel it too

[Writergurl]

Wow! This is very good. I liked this write a lot.
I find it kind of uplifting too. Beautiful write.

[Brad Dehler]

Thank you so much Destiny!

[W. Barrett Munn]

The final 9 lines are the ones I like best. I think it is a stirring conclusion.

Winston

[Brad Dehler]

Much appreciated Winston. It is a building poem, as is our love life as it depicts... I like your commendation for the "stirring conclusion". Made my day sir

[Bhuyanshi Talukdar]

Your poem is a beautiful tribute to the power of love and the beauty of a life shared together. The use of vivid imagery and sensory details is particularly effective, with the "brackish spirits" rising and the "petals" being sprinkled creating a vivid and immersive experience for the reader. The idea of love as a transformative force is emphasized throughout, with the speaker finding new meaning and purpose in their life through their relationship with their partner. The final lines of the poem are particularly poignant, with the speaker pledging their love and commitment to their partner forever. Overall, your poem is a beautiful and uplifting tribute to the power of love and the human experience. Well done!

[Brad Dehler]

Thank you so much BT. It was written from the heart and I feel you feel it. Thank you for this glowing review. Much appreciated!

[Dave Brown]

I appreciate your friend request but from what I read, your offerings are considerably more polished and sophisticated than anything I have to offer which makes it difficult for me to appreciate or comment on your efforts.

[Brad Dehler]

Thank you sir for this compliment. I hope you have a great weekend and keep up the good fight.

[Perdition]

Can't help but think about Neruda and what he might say about the aspect of love in this poem. Novella yes but love falls and pours onto the page and gallops over metaphors and senseless frustrations but not reasoning unless it is the loss of reasoning. It dances to its cause with blood in its teeth. I believe you're after something deeper in the explanation and some lines here are just simply incredible but overall this is one that needs time, wine, deciphering, and commitment to try and find the higher understanding (which is also a love), and the one thing that I was looking for which was the passion. I will give it more reads and as I said, some truly wonderful lines in this one. I'd just hate to see them lost in the overall structure and deciphering or perhaps analyzing what cannot be analyzed. Now, where is that wine :) Thanks for sharing it!

[Brad Dehler]

Really appreciate your thoughts on this. By all means, yes please re-read and I would love to hear more from you about the context.

[Amber Stone]

Brad, this looks a lot more deep and mature poem, hard to achieve, btw... rhapsodies are not given easily to many i guess. There are soo many images here, with the perfect binomial of honey and milk for title and introduction. And as you said, dear colleague, a true love story/novel taken into just one-rhapsody poem, that's lot indeed to achieve. So i congrats, NOT as reviewer, but as a colleague indeed.
Hugs, and cheers in your path of true love. Sincerely, Amber

[Brad Dehler]

Thank you Amber! Such a nice review. I mean Colleague share :)
Cheers to you on your love path as well! Thank you for your sincere evaluation!

[Marina]

I have to agree with Ken, below. This is the kind of poem that requires a few reads to decipher all meanings intended; love in all it's forms is what I took from it in the interesting novella to poetry format you have used.

Love is never straightforward and is exposed to many complexities so I tie that thought to your poem for myself to take away. ❤

[Brad Dehler]

Thank you for your lovely words Marina. I appreciate your review. I am glad you were able to absorb something good from me.

[Coyote Poetry]

Thank you Brad for sharing your long poetry. It is amazing. The dance of love, the dance of emotions. Never-ending. This is poetry my friend. Thank you for sharing the outstanding poetry.
Coyote

[Brad Dehler]

Thank you Coyote- as you know this goes against my standard. I typically write in short condensed form but this (my longest poem) developed in a very different way. Glad you liked it

[Coyote Poetry]

I liked the poetry Brad and you are welcome.