From Robert Lee Brewer:
I’ve found over the years that most people who can make it through three days have the stamina to keep poeming for 30. So let’s get through this together!
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “(blank) of Love,” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles could include: “Water Bottle of Love,” “Smart Phone of Love,” “Toothbrush of Love,” “Tweet of Love,” or any number of blanks of love. I actually kind of love this prompt and am surprised I’ve never done it before.
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Note from Victoria... Thanks, RLBrewer, now I have this song stuck in my head and the only phrase I can think of is "Pompatus of Love."
The reality of love
ReplyDeleteis not when you meet someone
and fall head over heels without
a single word said. That is
passion, infatuation,
cathexis. It is not love.
The reality of love
is when you spend time to look
at your lover's homely face,
find beauty, grace, elegance,
discover definitions
of love in lines, crevices.
The reality of love
is not expensive date nights,
dinners, flowers, chocolate,
or Prince Charming on his knee
to invite you to the ball,
dancing in your glass slippers.
The reality of love
is when you wrap your jacket
around the person you love
even though your arms are cold
to protect them from the wind
that chaps your own hands and face.
The reality of love.
Not love notes but love actions.
Not giving you the world but
traveling it together.
Reach out to make love happen.
Do not wait for fairy tales.
The Reality of Love is truly that. you've hit the nail on the head with this beautiful poem!!! I loved it. I think you really know love. I read it out loud to Paul and it reads well aloud also and paul loved it too.
Deleteawesome write and as Linda said you nailed this one! it reminded me of a poem I wrote poetry is for the young. it was in response to a young persons comment on my open mic that he was disappointed to see an overweight middle aged woman up there doing poems about lobe... his next line is what do old people know about love.. my question to him was what do young people know about real love? your poem says it all.
DeleteAbsolutely true, and nicely put as well.
DeleteThe is stanzas are better than the is not stanzas. The stuff that love isn't shouldn't be bland and obvious - then there's no worthy adversary for what love is. You could really let yourself go in the what love isn't stanzas - make the reader think Hey, this does sound pretty good.
DeleteYou know better than "beauty, grace, elegance." No ideas but in things.
And yeah, I'm being tough because there's something there.
Thank you for the critique. I normally work on a poem for a month or more before I let it "go public." As I said on Day 1, prepare yourself for a lot of bad poetry. On the other hand, I do tend to go back in May and edit the poems I think are "keepers" and until I read your critique I did NOT think of this one as one of those, so much so that I didn't even save it in a file.
DeleteI think there's more there than you may have thought. Cut out all the explaining. It's not your job as a poet to explain what love is.
DeleteThe Feelings Of Love
ReplyDeletelove is patient
love is kind
never boastful
nor conceited
never rude
nor selfish
not quick to take offense
you always want to be together
when you're not
you're thinking about
being together
because you need this person
without them, life is incomplete
you trust them with your life
it's the smile
on your face you get
when you're thinking of them
missing them
love is intense and passionate
love is incredibly powerful
it's natures way of tricking
people to reproduce
I liked your yesterday poem much more than this one, but this is still decent. Like Bonnie said, I think our childhood challenges actually did prepare us for this.
Deletelove is forgiving without expressing the hurt you feel over what the one you love said or did... i do a lot of that! lol! yes love is all the things you said. this could qualify as a 'list' poem. have you ever heard of or written one before?
Deletesorry for the lame job today. I just didn't feel well and made a list of love stuff.
DeleteGood list, though!
Deleteit wasn't a lame job. most list poems are boring. this one was interesting and well done.
DeleteA Single Rose of Love - Trijan RefrainEdit
ReplyDeleteA single rose upon the plate
you gave me that first night
so sweet and lovely my heart did laugh
and dance with loves pure joy.
How could this end with love so sweet
binding our two hearts and souls?
How could this end?
How could this end?
You would be my forever love.
A single rose upon the plate
of silver shining oh so bright
our twenty-fifth anniversary
my heart still dances with our love
my one true love forever
until the day I die
my one true love
my one true love
I’ll be forever by your side.
A single rose upon the plate
lies sadly in the candle light
tears of sadness I cry now
for a heart that must go on alone
you are now gone from this earth
my heart forever cries for you
you are now gone
you are now gone
my single rose your love still holds.
Pretty, and yes, much like a song indeed.
DeleteI like the structure. It's very moving. In the first stanza you're waiting for,the other shoe to drop. What's going to go wrong? In the second you (the reader) decide that no, it's ok, this really is a love that works. Then the third is so wrenching.
Deletethis is like a song. Did you have a tune going through your head while you were writing it??? If not I should sing you the one that came into my mind while reading it. It's very beautiful.
ReplyDeletenope...no tune... would love to hear what you came up with for this one.
DeleteI like the form. I will have to look it up. Don't know if it's me or your poetry, but they all seem to make me feel choked up lately.
DeleteAnd then I forgot what I wanted to say. I replied to THIS instead of the poem because I wanted to mention that you might want to think of putting this to music. I agree with Linda, it sounds like a song.
DeleteWild Shores of Love
ReplyDeleteWhen lovers float
with the breeze
they can ignore all else.
Please, write scores of music,
gilded with honey,
for the lovers dance
enhance it all
they need no money.
The sky is not
never was, the limit.
Never asking why...
why do you love me?
just take me...
my love is free.
I know you will be faithful
I feel it in my throbbing heart,
my throat, my breast, my soul.
Without you there is a hole
in my life, like a knife.
Come enjoy the power
of the hour
on the wild shores
of Love.
wonderful exciting imagery. a beautiful dance on the wild shores of love.
DeleteVery fine dance, very strong expression, love it!
DeleteYes!! This is more like it!! Not that the other poem was bad, just not up to what I think of as your "usual standard."
DeleteI love the part that starts with "please..." that sudden return from description to yearning is very moving.
DeleteSong of Love
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear you tell me
I am beautiful even though
I am not feeling as though I am
I hear your song of love.
When you thank me
for meals I have made
or for driving you to an appointment
I hear your song of love.
When we snuggle up
and you fall asleep next to me
breathing softly in my ear
I hear your song of love.
There is singing in
the sweetness of your glance
the soft touch of your hands
as you rub my shoulders.
The song I hear
plays even in the silence
as we sit watching the sun set
together, holding hands.
very beautiful imagery. very beautiful poem...
DeleteI love this!! And my first thought was, "Damn, wish I'd thought of 'Songs of Love.'" That is a perfect interpretation.
Deleteawesome write! so sweet and it flows so beautifully. love this one!
DeleteThank you, it was enjoyable to write and I am so happy you all liked it. One cannot easily judge one's own work.
DeleteThis one just flowed out so I must assume that it was building as I thought about the prompt. Nice prompt, nice poetry by all on the subject. We ladies know something about love I think.
ReplyDeleteOK, I know this doesn't work. I've written poems like this before - narratives that don't go anywhere - and sometimes they do work, they find their own direction. Anyway, I wrote two stanzas without any sense of direction, then looked at the prompt, and let that sort of suggest a path for the rest.
ReplyDeleteVARIETIES OF LOVE
He died in a
taxicab
from Brooklyn to Soho
on the way to an
assignation
he had four
varieties of drugs
in a small valise
but nothing in
his system
they were for four women
each of whom required
a different dose
each of whom
he could not do without
as it turned out they
could do without
him or drugs
one had turned to the Lord
another had found
peace in knitting
and crosswords
while two played the market
in Dar es Salaam
they did quite well
As always, interesting story. Love the varieties of women/love.
Deleteyour poems always draw me into the words and the scenes and although it seems to have been written almost coldly it is very emotional.
DeleteThere's a wonderful book called "But Beautiful" by Geoff Dyer. He started out to write a series of biographical sketches of jazz musicians, but ended up writing a sort of series of poetic meditations. In his chapter on Chet Baker - and it's a long time since I read it, but this is an approximation - he says that Chet Baker was devoid of human feeling, and a result, the music he made had a kind of purity that could reach into the deepest feelings of the listener. I hope I'm not devoid of human feeling, but I do try to use words and images and the sound of words to find feelings, rather than to express feelings,
DeleteAh, my apologies, I had not seen yours before. I like what you are doing, Tad, keep up the good work!
Delete