Love Found in Many Directions, Inflections, Variable Complexions, and Natural Selections
“Why should I grieve that she disdains my love,
Or seek for love, since love’s a grief ?”
—Excerpt from a 16th century madrigal by Francis Pilkington (ca.1570-1638)
My sonnet below was in the Saipan Tribune on Feb. 14, 2023.
Why Should I Grieve
Why should I grieve and sing sad song blues
If love brings grief regardless of who I choose
In all compass directions wherever wind blows
We had hot torrid summers and then she froze
He snatched her right up underneath my nose
Took my beauty and left me without relief
Love’s thorn pricks, blood flows from its rose
Must my love simply acquiesce to that thief
Lover come back to me, I will not fret or frown
About past events or any and all of our mistakes
Your touch, your kiss stops me from feeling down
With love from heaven above we shall partake
So why should I grieve and always seem to lose
My new love perspective stands inside your shoes.
Tracers of Love View From Above
I imagine if someplace like heaven does exist
as inhabitants up there look down from above
they find mirth and joviality in our attempts at love
and notice only foolish folks seriously resist
when viewed from a distance way far out in space
how petty our romantic emotions may seem
we wander about in a fool’s paradise and dream
and don’t even wake up when we fall flat on our face
thousands of love songs and poems have been written
books , musicals, plays, recordings overflow libraries
about those who lose and find love, the dreamer tarries
when young lovers, new lovers, old lovers get smitten
fools on a hill, high in mountains, down in the valleys
lovers rally, rotate, chance romance, dance, and dally.
Quantum Love Quantified (Feb. 10, 2017)
How much love is enough, can we ever get enough
measuring the amount of love is difficult to do
lifelong need mixed with other emotional stuff
disappointment depression and just feeling blue
Love parceled out to and from a giver and receiver
is like making limitations to friendship and kindness
it prevents those involved from being a true believer
while love itself is often simply blessed with blindness
Often more and more sometimes less love is more
love finds its way around us and through us all
life changes to family and friends love will explore
sensible and nonsensical love will rise and fall
It won’t fall out of fashion or any part of our lives
love from our innermost being grows and thrives.
Love Quid Pro Quo: Shrimp for Giant Prawn
(Let us not be selfish and give some love to shellfish)
The shrimps donation got appreciation
frustration was found in its equation
liquid litigation for a saline situation
brought considerable complication
annunciation from a pink crustacean
whose aspiration was magnification
but lacking justification and qualification
thus some nullification of the operation
still a temptation for prawn fornication
genus exploration and gender glorification
provided plenty patient process purification
followed by acrobatic aqueous pacification
thus starting with sublimation on its vacation
the cool crustacean began real relaxation.
This is my latest Senescent Sonnet written on Jan. 17, 2024. It’s narrative time ranges from my childhood in upstate New York in 1956 to stargazing and love today in the CNMI.
“Up above my head I hear music in the air”
—Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915 – 1973)
Love Below and Above
Above the basement creaky plywood floors
brothers bounding down our wooden stairs
slamming of bathroom and bedroom doors
mice scurry around above in the attic in pairs
looking up at big huge pine cones in a tree
trails disappear around curves up the mountain
seafoam is floating down from a typhoon sea
getting all wet from a Rota waterfall fountain
looking up from the desert, island, my backyard
laying out in fields watching meteor showers
the constellation Orion is a seven of clubs card
observing moonrise and it passing over for hours
you coming down on top of me from above
enveloping me in ecstasy and all your love.
Roses
Joey aka “Pepe Batbon” Connolly is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is the Poet Laureate of Tinian and enjoys stargazing.
