I see thine image through my tears tonight,
And yet today I saw thee smiling. How,
Refer the cause? Beloved, is it thou
Or I? . . who makes me sad? The acolyte
Amid the chanted joy & solemn rite,
May, so, fall flat, with pale insensate brow.
On the altar-stair. I hear thy voice & vow
Perplexed . . , uncertain . . , since thou'rt out of sight,
As he, in his swooning ears, the choir's amen!-
Beloved, dost thou love?, . . or did I see all
The glory as I dreamed, and fainted when
Too vehement light dilated my Ideal,
For my soul's eyes? Will that light come again,
As now these tears come, . . . . falling hot & real.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sonnet

Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed
And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright,
Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light
Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:
And love is fire. And when I say at need
I love thee...mark!...I love thee- in thy sight
I stand transfigured, glorified aright,
With conscience of the new rays that proceed
Out of my face toward thine. There's nothing low
In love, when love the lowest: meanest creatures
Who love God, God accepts while loving so.
And what I feel, across the inferior features
Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show
How that great work of Love enhances Nature's.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sonnet LIV

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!
The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses:
But, for their virtue only is their show,
They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade,
Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made:
And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.

Shakespeare

Dreamland

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE- out of TIME.

Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the tears that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters- lone and dead,-
Their still waters- still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily.

By the lakes that thus outspread
Their lone waters, lone and dead,-
Their sad waters, sad and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily,-
By the mountains- near the river
Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,-
By the grey woods,- by the swamp
Where the toad and the newt encamp-
By the dismal tarns and pools
Where dwell the Ghouls,-
By each spot the most unholy-
In each nook most melancholy-
There the traveller meets aghast
Sheeted Memories of the Past-
Shrouded forms that start and sigh
As they pass the wanderer by-
White-robed forms of friends long given,
In agony, to the Earth- and Heaven.

For the heart whose woes are legion
'Tis a peaceful, soothing region-
For the spirit that walks in shadow
'Tis- oh, 'tis an Eldorado!
But the traveller, travelling through it,
May not- dare not openly view it!
Never its mysteries are exposed
To the weak human eye unclosed;
So wills its King, who hath forbid
The uplifting of the fringed lid;
And thus the sad Soul that here passes
Beholds it but through darkened glasses.

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have wandered home but newly
From this ultimate dim Thule.

Edgar Allen Poe

Friends of Mine

The world will cry for joy of you,
And with their shining tears
The sun will shine it's light for you,
And bring music to your ears.

What more can this life give
To me than what your friendship brings?
What more reason to breathe and live
Than when you choose to sing?

Your smile alone means more to me
Than any other cheer.
I can't tell you how much you broke my heart,
With a single silent tear.

Because your laugh to me is more
Than just of course, a laugh.
We seem to know the darkness well,
As it has crossed our path.

You've seen me through the hardest
Rough rolling on the sea,
And I can never thank you,
But Thank You, Bethany.

Bittersweet

Softly spoken words
You told me you still love me
But what is the end, in the end?
Ever bitter mile doldrums my mind
Teardrops fall and grimace
Not obsession, not depression,
I still want to live this life
I would like you by my side
The sweet soft words
Whispered from three hundred miles
Away should my fears be.
Dripping the ends of rainbows.
Bitter tears, sweet whispers
Bitter miles, sweet kisses.
Bittersweet love.


~Krystn

The Dawning

Dawning at a new horizon
Not broken but renewed
I awoke to see the sun had risen
I awoke to see the melted dew.
It was a revelation,
A wave departing from the shore.
I hate to suppress it longer.
I don't love the phantom anymore.