The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sat 9/23/06)

[RetroLounge]

Love’s Too Familiar A Word

I stepped into the room late last night
because late is the time I keep
you were sleeping warm as coal
in a pocket of comfort and white sheets

but you don't startle anymore when I step into the room
though the hour is later than midnight
and neither window can place a moon.

"I missed you," you say
and it sounds like a promise
when whispered half asleep
your skin still damp with sweat
from thoughts your dreams refused to keep

I follow my memory to a switch on a light
"Shut your eyes" my voice cut short
when darkness turns bright

"Do you love me?" you say
but love is too familiar a word
for in this bed 10,000 times a phrase already heard
but, "Yes, I love you" speaks my reply
though I know I failed myself and you for not
matching how I feel with words of higher wealth

I know its lonely in the world tonight
because here is more than what's deserved
and the imbalance can't be summed in black and white
cause "love's" too familiar a word

Ellis Paul

*******************

Thanks to lizziegrace for sending me this poem... :hug:

*******************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[Callalily]

1. What a heart-wrenching

poem RL. I think that's the worst kind of loneliness. Being with someone but not really being connected.

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

5. "worst kind of loneliness"

Almost as bad as being connected to someone but not being able to be with them...

:cry:

RL

[lizziegrace]

2. That's interesting

I see the opposite. Love is such an over-used word that there has to someway to express what is beyond that and he fails her trying to verbalize how he feels about her...

"but, "Yes, I love you" speaks my reply
though I know I failed myself and you for not
matching how I feel with words of higher wealth"

[lizziegrace]

3. Thank you RL for posting this

The author is a folk singer first, poet and storyteller second. ::)

[wildhorses]

4. yes, that is how I read it, too. lizziegrace...

nice poem. thanks for sending it. And aren't songs just poems set to melody:shrug:

[lizziegrace]

6. during his concerts, he reads it

And his voice is one of love and wishing he could do justice (verbally) to those feelings.

[lizziegrace]

7. He's performing near here in October

I'll ask him.

:)

[miss_american_pie]

8. Oh, ask what he meant by these lines

I know its lonely in the world tonight
because here is more than what's deserved

That's where the whole thing hinges for me.

:hi:

[lizziegrace]

9. I will

That confused me too. The rest is so straightforward to me.

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

11. Here's my take on it...

He has more love than he thinks he deserves, so to keep the balance, someone in the world has less than they deserve...

RL

[miss_american_pie]

13. Or the "here" caused loneliness elsewhere

:hi:

[lizziegrace]

18. That's what I've always thought

:)

[speedoo]

19. That was how I read it too, RL.

Beautiful poem. Thanks to you and lizziegrace.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. My dear RetroLounge.......and lizziegrace too........

Thanks to both of you.......

For bringing this lovely poem to us today......

I can't figure it out either..........

But it is beautiful to me.......

:grouphug:

[EFerrari]

12. I'm tearing the house apart to clean and rearrange and I miss

Elizabeth Bishop. I can't find her. It's a terrible thing to miss a poet. :)

[miss_american_pie]

14. The art of losing isn't hard to master

I hope she turns up soon. ;)

[EFerrari]

16. lol. I'm looking for "Geography". It's so skinny

it could be anywhere. :)

[RetroLounge]

15. "It's a terrible thing to miss a poet"

I think there's more than one person here who can relate...

:hi:

RL

[EFerrari]

17. I used to have to know where my Norton was or I couldn't sleep.

True!

:hi: