A Lover’s Anthem
by Elsan H. Stafford

EXCERPT

Prologue

Through the staccato energy and musical temperance of rhyming verse and iambic articulation, A Lover's Anthem speaks the inimitable language of unrequited love and romantic indestructibility! It is a collection of aesthetically sensitive and moral insights drawn from some seventy years of a life seldom in retreat but ever striving prophetically for the concept of love made perfect through honesty and truth. Elegantly written in poetic structures reminiscent of Sara Teasdale, Emily Dickinson and Robert Service, these are bittersweet poems designed to caress the heart and stimulate even the most prosaic soul. Indeed, here is an anthem to love's emotional transfiguration and a homage to every struggling dreamer who cherishes inimitable love, chivalry and the romantic ideal.

REFLECTIONS

Before you go, walk close to me for just a pace,
So I can smell the perfume of your hair,
And probe the wonder of the smile upon your face,
And drink the essence of the beauty there
So close to me...before you go.

And if perchance I dare to hope too much,
To coax into reality my wayward dreams,
To feel the warmth of flesh I'll never touch,
To taste of love its ecstasy's extremes;

'Tis not because that I am growing mad,
Nor yet because of unrequited sins,
But rather from the want of love I almost had,
And the memory of gypsy violins.

And so, walk near to me, but not too close,
Lest you detect the tumult of my sighs,
And then my heart abandon its repose,
From the aspect of emotion in your eyes.

There was a time in youth, when roses grew
Along the path I trod, my love to meet;
Alas! it was a love that proved untrue,
To leave me with a memory bittersweet.

And so romance is but a dream to me;
My heart is safe within the shelter of my mind;
I dare but to imagine love's reality,
A passion borne and lost upon the wind!

For I tremble at the boldness of my thought,
And consequence reality might bring,
Should you become aware of what I sought;
I cannot risk rejection's ugly sting.

So I barter in the marketplace of dreams;
For if I'm cheated in the bargain that I make,
And the merchandise I boughts not what it seems,
I've only but to shrug myself awake.

Then, walk away from me! ... the moment's gone!
And take away your Mona Lisa smile!
I've awakened from my dream, and am alone...
Still...your memory will disturb me...for a while.

TO ONE ONCE LOVED

After you've gone, what good the tears,
Or futile words that say
What happiness you gave to me
Once in a better day?

What good the songs that sing your praise,
In words you cannot hear;
Of joy you gave to those you loved,
From those who held you dear?

For who can know to whither we go...
Into a night, or a brighter day;
So, hear these words that tell you now,
Not after you've gone away!

LOVE IS

Love is but a wooing, a coming and a going,
An ebbing and a flowing, a restless to and froing;
Love binds me most where I fain would be free,
Oh, the silent, grim struggle I make to free me
From dead Love's icy fingers;
How it rankles and lingers!

Love is but the gladness of a moment...then a sadness;
But a grim and ghastly madness,
Nothing more!
Love is but an aching...but a breaking;
A having for the taking, and at last a glad forsaking;
A terrible, true awaking!

Love is but the robbing of a heart once set athrobbing,
Of a Soul that's left asobbing,
By a Love forever dear...forever false.
Love is but a yearning, but a burning,
But a muddled mind achurning,
Whirling in a tango or a waltz.

Detesting what it's learning,
Yet knowing that it's true...
Forever loving you!
Love is but a fashion...but a harmless passing passion
To some, and yet this gash in
My heart is killing me!
Let me be! Set me free!!

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