Love Poems

  Isle of Romance O Isle of Romance, what a fanciful thought, _Most surely a sensual place--- Capri, Catalina, Tahiti or Crete _Where ardent, young lovers embrace. For poets and painters, an Isle of Romance _Is simply an artistic goal--- A yearning, a dream, an intangible reach, _A vision arousing...

  A Midsummer Night's Dream Whose dream are they, these four Athenian lovers whose mad misunderstandings mock each other? Moonstruck puppets in a fairy play, bemused and lovesick sleepwalkers astray across the borderlands of night and day, manipulated wits not rediscovered till horns halloo the dawn. till horns halloo the...

  Reviewed Poetry Book: Love Found, Yearned For, and Lost by James A. Tweedie by Theresa Werba I have had the pleasure of knowing James Tweedie and his poetry since 2017 when his first poem appeared at the Society of Classical Poets. I have always found an authenticity and truthfulness...

  Star Festival The legend of the love of a heavenly weaver girl and an earthly cowherd was recorded in the Eastern Han dynasty 2000 years ago. Stars of the Summer Triangle are Vega (weaver girl), Altair (cowherd), and Deneb (bridge). The emperor of heaven allowed the lovers to meet...

  Song of the Frog Princess —a fairytale love song Whisk me away to an old fashioned dance where old folks jump high as if they’re entranced, where frogs turn to princes when given the chance. Whisk me away to an old fashioned dance. Bounce me on over a tumbleweed...

  I This mystic draw, these pangs I feel for you--- Are they mere sparks, the scent of pheromones, Complex reactions deep within our bones Compelling what transpires between us two? Or is it something science never knew, Unreached by every method it condones, The greatest of its myriad unknowns,...

Reviewed Poetry Book: Canzoniere by Petrarch, Translated by A.M. Juster, Liveright (Norton) Publishing, 2026 by Margaret Coats A.M. Juster, longtime member of the Society of Classical Poets, has completed the only full English translation of Petrarch’s Canzoniere in formal verse corresponding to the Italian original. Why read it? In reading...

  What Folly Dares What folly dares inflict its spectral pow’r To grieve my love and I who burn to love her? For some deceit has in this bitter hour Transformed me into a forsaken lover. Where once the light and heat of love prevailed Now darkened chill of scorn...

  The Diamond When Earth was young and life was new An alien forest clothed a land Where dreadful monsters crept and flew, All meant for my beloved’s hand. They went the way of all life, fell To earth, beneath earth to withstand A lightless, crushing, white-hot hell--- All this...

  Poem 5 by Catullus (circa 84-54 BC) translated from Latin by Mary Jane Myers Ah, Lesbia, lust’s our sweet pastime. Old codgers censure us en bloc. Their gossip’s worth not one thin dime. Dawn always breaks in each epoch, but our span’s brief. Life’s suns soon set, we slumber...

  Amore If looks could kill I’d be a dead man walking. Your drop-dead beauty has me in its spell. If I were deaf, I’d yearn to hear you talking, For beautiful would be your words as well. You’d be a perfect film noir femme fatale. You’ll always win my...

  À la Carte A crouton on a flaccid salad, Your dinner date adds texture to An otherwise anemic toss, And with a tint not half so pallid Promotes your lettucey appeal To something more than total loss. So drink the wine and thank the Father For garnishing your evening...

  Waiting for the Perfect Man A woman waiting for the perfect man, though she was far from perfect, had a list of qualities a man must have. Her plan to claim perfection could not be dismissed; on certain traits, she simply must insist. When she was thirty-five and still...

  Where the Ground Gives Way Once I took your face into my hand, and sunlight showed the tears within your eyes; it seemed we stood on slowly yielding land, where something long concealed began to rise. No word was said—yet both of us could feel a hidden current moving...

  Canzone of Parting   I There are secluded places in the wild Where the breeze settles, like a weary child, Down on the mossy blanket of the heath, Ceasing to stir the surface of the leith; Nor can one hear the babbling of the rill __Where all the world...

  The Lip Surely before I have felt as though heaven _were pressed to my lips such as this, Yet touching your smile is so sweet I imagine _there never has been such a kiss. Riv’ling the ruby—the cottony soft— _as warm as a slow summer breeze. The ultimate passion—Love...

    A Wedding Song (Away the Winter) In May shall be her wedding day, When hawthorn blooms do scent the air, And she will dance in fine array, With fragrant flowers pinned in her hair. Away the winter, come the spring, She waits to wear her lover's ring. Away...

  The Willow Guard Beneath a willow weeps a girl, All hidden by green fronds that furl And stretch and wave and fondly curl __Upon the stream. The tree's her oyster; she the pearl __Cannot be seen. Amongst the water, leaves and birds She whispers woe and wistful words. Between...

  To Thine Own Text Be True For My Autocorrect on Valentine’s Day You turn my hope to mope, my bliss to dross, My win to sin, my better into bitter. Your lunacy has left me at a loss. You make my finer fellow-texters titter. I’m now a shitshow of...

Listen, Wishin' Star Listen, you cotton pickin’ Wishin’ Star, I know how far up in the sky you are. I sent a wish up to your starry vaults; I made a wish and I expect results. My wish was quite explicit. I told you who Was one I wished for,...

  Hallmark Holiday Some chocolates in a crimson, heart-shaped box— if ever there’s a thing that says I love you with much less of an effort (maybe socks, some roses or a teddy bear, what have you) I don’t know what it is. The corner stores, the pharmacies, the strip...

  The Mystery That Is You The gasping hulks of rusted wrecks that share with eyeless scavengers the mysteries of Styxlike depths; the lecherous affair of heaving earth expelling centuries of fetal carbons from its fiery womb; grotesque microbic warriors, whose fields of battle on a wisp of breath consume...

  Canzone Sung from the Mountains   I Above the source of the refreshing fountain, The sloping forest of the soaring pine, And all the clouds, with careful steps I climb, Passing each root and crevice in the mountain, Until at last, I look upon the brine As might a...

  Why Did I Kiss You? _I kissed you with no warning. _You softly asked me why. _I said that passion baffles, _that it can mystify. The reasons why I kiss you are _like petals on a rose. There are so many that it’s hard _to pin it down. Who...

  Shards How unexpected did that moment come; How swift and sudden did that moment pass. A fleeting touch that left my spirit numb; A shattered mirror, shards of broken glass. A moment etched into my memory As if engraved on cold, unbending stone. A passing moment in eternity; A...

  Two Sonnets by Nino Martoglio (1870-1921) translated from Sicilian by Joseph S. Salemi   I. Young lady, you who work embroidery At your small loom, behind the window’s glass— Tell me, why is it that you gaze at me When there in the morning I go by and pass?...

  Sunrise The world is blue at its beginning. Birth is what we wait for, at the edge of earth. __The vague waves lap the shore, __swelled by an unseen oar from where the sea and sky are blurred one blue, a periwinkle, hazy stretch of hue, __a bar of...

  Canzone at Evening by Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) translated from Italian by Margaret Coats At the hour when heaven rapidly recedes To greet the West, and our day flies away To those who are perhaps expecting it, Alone and far from where she used to stay, A pilgrim, old and...

  Encounters It seemed in dreams, as shadows we convene, two drifting souls that meet yet never stay; was it mere thought, or something sensed between? You shifted shape, then softly slipped away, and I, half-waking, felt you passing through--- an echoed word I almost heard you say. Life is...

  Practicing Brahms ---Piano Solo, Intermezzo, Op 118 No. 2 (1893) My Steinway's gelid lacquered keys turn gauzy. The notes and markings that Johannes wrote (composed with goose-wing feather quills) now float aloft in realms of lush melodic poesy--- pining for Clara, forty fervid years la belle dame sans merci---unconsummated....

  A Solace   I. High hills we climb Till my coat is worn, “To the end of time, We’ll never be torn.” Her pleading I hear In my heart, in tears.   II. I caress the threads, Of the coat she wove, I'll wear forever Wherever---in snow.    ...

. A Century's Divinity Another time, another place, A waft of smoke, a peaceful space, Atop the club---a Deke at Yale, And Vassar maiden, by the rail. Alone they stood, alone they spoke, Postured classic, lass and bloke, A century's divinity, Not far from our proximity. Far from perfect: Mother,...

. Come Away with Me ___I ___Come away with me, ___Birds will never sing ___In the place where we ___View no flower in Spring, Nor behold the sight of any natural thing. ___II ___Vain is it to build ___Brick by brick our dome, ___Nature having willed ___Animals to roam Over...

. Lyrics by Philodemus of Gadara (circa 1st century BC) translated from Greek by Joseph S. Salemi . V.13 Charito is past sixty, and yet still Her lustrous black hair falls in thick cascades; Still those ungirdled breasts stand firm and white As marble cones upon her naked chest; Still...

. Sally in Our Alley ---written by Henry Carey (born Aug. 26) in 1725 Of all the girls that are so smart _There’s none like pretty Sally; She is the darling of my heart, _And she lives in our alley. There is no lady in the land _Is half so...

. Ten Floors I stepped into our building’s entranceway.It was aglow from bright sunshine that day.With friends she walked inside as I got there,So beautiful I had to stop and stare. Without a chance to speak, my next resortWas get the building manager’s report!Thus armed, I neared her door, in...

. This poetry challenge comes from poet Roy E. Peterson: Provide a poem about your inspiring Muse. If you name a Muse, put it in a poet's note at the bottom of your poem. If it is someone living, you need not reveal their name. For those who do not...

. There Was a Time I Tried to Love the Sun There was a time I tried to love the Sun. I saw his golden splendor in the sky At Lammastide, when harvest had begun, Aflame above the windswept fields of rye. I thought to love him would be good...

. Advice to a Young Man in Love If her name is Sally, then _Tattoo it on your arm With Lovehearts terminally, and _It won’t do any harm, Because, when Sally breaks your heart, _There’s Sallys up and down Quite every street in every part _Of every country town. But...

. Aubade at Seven AM The years have fled, and time so swiftly flees,since that brief hour when you and I first met;but how we loved I still remember yet;so purely did you live and love and please.You were a wonder then and still are now,a form of beauty and...