Passing spell


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Passing spell

My heart was yours before I ever met you,

I long to love you ‘til the end of time.

So do you think that I could ever let you

Become a passing spell that’s not sublime?

All roses wilt as autumn ends in sorrow

Blind nature kills their petals, and the shoots

That bloom away their passions meet tomorrow,

Where passing spells leave nothing but their roots.

My love for you is stronger than life’s ending,

Yet how it’s so I’m at a loss to say.

Your roses in my heart go on extending

The fragrance of our passing spell’s bouquet.

For as long as I love you and you love me,

Our spell will pass, but last eternally.

For Katherine Lynne Wheeler, my beloved fiancée

February 14, 2005

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Thank you, sweetheart, I love you so much and I love when you write me poetry. It is really special. Happy Valentines Day. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love you.

purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Kisses,

Kitten

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It occurs to me that some readers may have a bit of difficulty with this poem due to the vagueness factor, so here is a part of what was in my head when I wrote it.

The feeling of love I have for Kat is at a fever pitch intensity, but controlled - sort of like a top spinning. Lots of movement, but it seems to stand still. If you focus on the spinning, you move so fast you lose sight of the standing still part.

We all live within the confines of time where our very existence has a beginning, middle and end. When life ends, the love goes with it. Yet the intensity of the feeling of love can make it seem like it is actually stronger than the confines of life. I tried to capture that impression. Obviously, there is no forever that we know of for a living being, yet love like what I feel for Kat sure seems like it.

On vagueness, one characteristic of a good poem is that it be specific enough for a reader/listener to be affected, yet vague enough to invite the reader/listener to draw on his/her own feelings. The word techniques like rhythm and rhyme add a deeper dimension by providing an almost sensory level for running the message back and forth between comprehension and emotion.

A word like "spell" works wonderfully, as it could mean a passage of time, an enchantment, life itself or love.

Unfortunately, this poem is a bit dark, but it had to be that way. If you are going to claim that your feeling of love is greater than life, then you must deal with death to contrast it.

That's enough for now. The rest is up to you and what you see in it.

Michael

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Michael, you don't have to explain your poem. I am sure people get you, I know I do. You have a ton of talent and I am very touched by your work. I'm really proud of you. Not every girl has a guy who can write beautiful poetry for her. It is a wonderful feeling when your love expresses itself through verse. I know it really makes me feel beautiful and special. Keep them coming. I love you.

purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Kat

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  • 2 years later...
Passing spell

My heart was yours before I ever met you,

I long to love you ‘til the end of time.

So do you think that I could ever let you

Become a passing spell that’s not sublime?

All roses wilt as autumn ends in sorrow

Blind nature kills their petals, and the shoots

That bloom away their passions meet tomorrow,

Where passing spells leave nothing but their roots.

My love for you is stronger than life’s ending,

Yet how it’s so I’m at a loss to say.

Your roses in my heart go on extending

The fragrance of our passing spell’s bouquet.

For as long as I love you and you love me,

Our spell will pass, but last eternally.

For Katherine Lynne Wheeler, my beloved fiancée

February 14, 2005

I'm just getting to read this "room," only a couple of years late.

I really like your lines, "Your roses in my heart go on extending/The fragrance of our passing spell's bouquet." It has a little surprise development that doesn't create any stress or stretch...really gratifying.

--Mindy

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Michael and Kat, I've seen many people rhapsodize over their love for each other; one couple did so in Objectivist Living, and I received a lot of flak for not being convinced by their protestations of love, as I often am not convinced by public protestations. But you two are different. From the beginning of your relationship, even when it consisted only of emails and phone conversations before you were able to meet, the authenticity of your feelings for each other was unmistakeable. And as I've seen you together over the past few years, and as your feelings grow and deepen, their authenticity becomes even more evident You two project a mutual respect, an honoring of each other, a quiet pleasure in simply being together, that is a delight to witness. And when you "go public" with your feelings, my impression is that it is because you are overflowing with your happiness and want to share it.

I can wish you nothing more than you already have -- except that it last for all your lives.

Barbara

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Romantic dreck does not promote long marriages. Developing a -friendship- by sharing common tasks and difficulties does. I and my xyl "Woman of Valor", have been married for 51 years and it looks as though only death shall put us asunder. Neither of us are given to romantic shit (that is what romance is -- shit).

Proverbs 30:10 gives a better clue to long lasting marriages than rose tinted romance.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Barbara,

Thank you very much.

When Kat and I went public, we thought that a forum would be a place of celebration. As you can see from elsewhere on this thread, there are petty little souls who like to use such gestures as opportunities to get attention they crave but have never felt they deserved. They are light thieves who try to steal the light of others because they have none of their own to give the world. And they are resentful and envious because of it.

I am no longer hurt by such things because there are those like you who celebrate the light. Your words and wishes are beautiful and they are received as such. We shall shine on and so shall you.

Michael

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MSK, maybe best to keep in mind that Bob K. is an Asperger's person, and lacks a range of sensitivities, including an awareness of when NOT to make a comment.

The poem is first rate. I didn't see it when it was posted originally. Echoes in the imagery bring to mind both my favorite Shakespeare sonnet ("What is so rare as a day in June?"-- the second half, starting with "Every clod feels a stir of might," the subsequent carrying through of the metaphor; the first half is blasé) and Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn."

Ellen

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Ellen,

Thank you very much. That's high praise coming from you (you being who you are) and it is accepted as such, with humility.

I am particularly pleased you found echoes of Shakespeare since he was on my mind when I wrote it. I wasn't copying him (other than observing the sonnet form), but Shakespeare has a wide view of things and a distinctive flavor (for lack of a better word) in how he expressed it. I drank from that cup, but in today's language, without trying to be Elizabethan.

As you can see from our other discussions, I have had an issue with time for quite a while and it goes all over the place at times. I guess when in doubt, make something beautiful is a good idea. :)

EDIT: I just looked it up since I had never read that sonnet. The phrases "What is so rare as a day in June?" and "Every clod feels a stir of might," come from The Vision of Sir Launfal by James Russell Lowell.

On the other issue, I fully believe it is possible for a person with Asperger's syndrome to feel envy and take responsibility for expressing it. Asperger's is not a license to pretend that kind of thing does not exist. I can forgive or ignore social awkwardness (and I have defended this person both online and off many times in this respect), but there is a difference between social awkwardness and shit. Just like there is a difference between fighting an enemy with ruthless precision and genocide.

Michael

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Romantic dreck does not promote long marriages. Developing a -friendship- by sharing common tasks and difficulties does. I and my xyl "Woman of Valor", have been married for 51 years and it looks as though only death shall put us asunder. Neither of us are given to romantic shit (that is what romance is -- shit).

Proverbs 30:10 gives a better clue to long lasting marriages than rose tinted romance.

Ba'al Chatzaf

For the record.

--Brant

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EDIT: I just looked it up since I had never read that sonnet. The phrases "What is so rare as a day in June?" and "Every clod feels a stir of might," come from The Vision of Sir Launfal by James Russell Lowell.

I'll be hornswaggled; the "sonnet" isn't a sonnet, and is something by Lowell not Shakespeare. I wonder how/when I got into my head that it was by Shakespeare. It's NOT being by Shakespeare explains what I've found puzzling about it: The disjunct between the pedestrianness of the rest of it and the metaphor which I like so much.

Here's the quote from the site you linked:

Every clod feels a stir of might,

An instinct within it that reaches and towers,

And, grasping blindly above it for light,

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;

I've also partly misremembered it by somewhat improving it. (I find that I often do that with poetry which I memorized years ago; over time I improve details from the original wording.)

The way I've remembered it is:

"Every clod feels a stir of might,

An instinct within it that reaches and towers,

And, [groping] blindly above it for light,

Climbs to a soul in [trees] and flowers."

Ellen

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