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content/post/poetry/poems-from-missives.md

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+---
+categories:
+- Poem
+ratings: G
+date: 2017-02-12
+type: post
+tags:
+- Poetry
+- Romanticism
+- Flower language
+title: Completed poems from "Missives"
+---
+
+<pre class="verse">
+Though the flow'r may bloom ere long
+    and night recede unto the dawn,
+so yet may love's embrace grow fond
+    and still be spoilt upon the wan.
+Brave are you and wield your smile:
+    A cudgel, tool, a keen-edged blade.
+You are not wan, love is not spoilt;
+    thus I be slain and love not fade.
+Have I any need for flow'rs?
+    For nights, for dawns, for words or breath?
+With so keen and fond a blade,
+    There's naught to fear in life or death.
+        So slay, then slay! For now, I care not how,
+        I need for naught but that which love allow.
+</pre>
+
+-----
+
+<pre class="verse">
+Though every climax approach a denouement
+And every dawn a night,
+Every moment worth sharing
+May be worth stealing.
+    Were it with you,
+    Delay, then, the morn.
+
+When every touch lingers as if forever
+And yet seems to pass too soon,
+Hearts reach out to hearts,
+To seek, to aim, to keep.
+    Were it with you,
+    Delay, then, the morn.
+
+Surely it's cruelty that need begets need begets need,
+And yet need may bring pleasure.
+Pleasure may hurt, ache, burn,
+May steal hours of night.
+    Were it with you,
+    Delay, then, the morn.
+</pre>
+
+-----
+
+<pre class="verse">
+I reach for the ewer of water,
+I hope to quench the heat.
+I beg for yet another serving,
+I hope to fill my need.
+
+The water -- cool -- cools not
+Without thy merry presence.
+The food fills, passes, is gone --
+Yet leaves me empty, yearning.
+
+Though the heart may quicken --
+Though the tongue may lap --
+I shall sup no greater meal
+Than thy gift entrancing.
+</pre>
+
+-----
+
+<pre class="verse">
+On reading letters late received,
+I felt within: the fox --
+Yelping, yowling now, crying needfully --
+Myself, a craving beast.
+
+You find me at a disadvantage --
+Panting and aswish --
+Would that distance be traversed as easily
+As hearts t'wards yearning hearts!
+</pre>
+
+-----
+
+<pre class="verse">
+A rose, single, now blooming
+    may indeed bless the stem,
+yet are not roses clipp'd and shown?
+    Undoubted 'tis a blessing to them
+who receive such a gift!
+    Yet now unmade is the flow'r
+which adorns thy mantle with its grace
+    and withers, however slowly, by the hour,
+        until 'tis faded to nothing and dust,
+        though some scent remain forever amidst the must.
+
+A rose, single, now blooming
+    is perhaps best left on the stem,
+its beauty to be admired amidst the growth.
+    Surely 'tis better to long for that gem,
+than witness beauty wilt and dry!
+    Yet now one must long indeed, must burn,
+Must yearn forever for that grace.
+    To watch that growth, to explore stem's turn,
+        day by day would destroy, weakening one by the hour,
+        A rose, single, now blooming, forever holds all pow'r.
+</pre>