INAMORATA (or a little infatuation can go a long way)

I

Of all the women that I ever knew
Alone you stand with my heart in your hand.
How is it that you of all women 
Have taken hold of my mind?

I was free as a bird in flight.
To soar the skies, exultant in my pride,
Riding the winds as they came.
But now your love tethers me to earth
For where my heart is I there I remain.

II

The music of Beethoven and Mozart plays on.
But on paths dimly lit:
There my thoughts wander on and on

Do I have words for this strange sickness?
My wanderings have never brought me thus far.
If only you would take my hand 
Even as you have seized my heart.
Then perhaps you and I together
May search out the wonder of this thing.

III

In this September season of showers
You have made me drink 
---of strange and heady wine.
So like fabled nectar and ambrosia,
Madness to mere mortals’ minds.

Like Circe, you leave me ensorcelled
And I am caught in your web.
How is it that you of all women
Have taken such a hold on me? 

IV

Just outside my window 
Grows a clump of wild flowers
Of glorious, riotous colors
But they offer no distractions.

Of all the women in the world,
Why did it have to be you?
Why you? I don’t know.
If I knew that---I would be
The wisest sage alive.

V

There have been and will be
Many ways to kill a man
But this is the cruelest yet.

This strange sickness brings 
Such a fever, such pain
That I no longer know myself.
When you smile at others:
It is a knife twisting, turning in my heart.

VI

How many times…
Does a man mock himself?
How many times a day
Does a man laugh at himself?
You cause me such pain 
That I cannot even find the words 
To tell you how I feel
When you make me 
Mock myself for loving you.

VII

Twelve, twenty times today
I ask myself not to be a fool.
But such thoughts vanish
Whenever I set eyes on you.
What is it about you
That makes me so---
I lack the words to tell it.
All that comes to mind 
Is the pain and anguish of loving you.

VIII

My fevered thoughts will run on and on
More than I have words to write.
All I ask, woman
Is that you smile for me alone
And laugh with me only.
Not too much to ask.

For alone of all the women I've known:
You it is who stands with my heart in your hand,
You --- alone of all women.

aletheia:

INAMORATA (or a little infatuation can go a long way)

I

Of all the women that I ever knew
Alone you stand with my heart in your hand.
How is it that you of all women 
Have taken hold of my mind?

I was free as a bird in flight.
To soar the skies, exultant in my pride,
Riding the winds as they came.
But now your love tethers me to earth
For where my heart is I there I remain.

aletheia:

V

There have been and will be
Many ways to kill a man
But this is the cruelest yet.

This strange sickness brings 
Such a fever, such pain
That I no longer know myself.
When you smile at others:
It is a knife twisting, turning in my heart.

VI

How many times…
Does a man mock himself?
How many times a day
Does a man laugh at himself?
You cause me such pain 
That I cannot even find the words 
To tell you how I feel
When you make me 
Mock myself for loving you.

VII

Twelve, twenty times today
I ask myself not to be a fool.
But such thoughts vanish
Whenever I set eyes on you.
What is it about you
That makes me so---
I lack the words to tell it.
All that comes to mind 
Is the pain and anguish of loving you.

VIII

My fevered thoughts will run on and on
More than I have words to write.
All I ask, woman
Is that you smile for me alone
And laugh with me only.
Not too much to ask.

For alone of all the women I've known:
You it is who stands with my heart in your hand,
You --- alone of all women.

Ishilove: Oooookay. Don't mind me, I love teasing. . The poem is really sweet and romantic. I think the man should just chop liver and ask the woman in question out abeg. I don't know why men are afraid of expressing their feelings o. Whenever I admire a man, I boldly tell him so, consequences be damned.

That said,the poem is very sweet, sad and romantic. A man pining away over a woman who doesn't even know he exists, although I must admit the guy sounds like somebody who has been jazzed up, which is what love/infatuation can do to a person. Makes you do crazy thangs and makes one feel totally fuccked. Love is pain.

Very nice.

A strange lethargy had seized you,
Weariness descended like a pall upon you.
All you wanted to do was lie down and sleep,
To sleep and rest from the heartache.
But the memory of things past would not let you:

"Her eyes were such like you had never seen
And her smile; well, it was like a slow-kindled fire.
Could you put a name to the strange change
From the boy you’d been into someone else?
Caught between two opposed passions 
--- Never again the same."

Ah, but how well I remember that eyes can lie.
And lies spoken with a smile from the lips of a friend
Are crueler than this blade beaded with my blood.

aletheia:
^
Thanks for the comments. Decided to upload some personal poems. This was written during a period when I was really infatuated with someone.

aletheia: Betrayal

Could you put a name to the strange change
From the boy you’d been into someone else?
Caught between two opposed passions 
--- Never again the same."

Ah, but how well I remember that eyes can lie.
And lies spoken with a smile from the lips of a friend
Are crueler than this blade beaded with my blood.

Ishilove:
She don cook efo give you chop.

Enigma: Chei, I don miss Oh! Thank God say I dey follow Ishi as that's how I come see this thread.



Ishi, you be wetin Yoruba people dey call kata girl! As a kata too, I like that.

Enigma:
@aletheia

I am not a poet and can't put things this beautifully; but I really enjoyed that. I had the good fortune that the first time I felt emotions as deep as expressed in your beauty here it was requited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

firestar: La maladie d'amour...

NOVEMBER FIRST

Another October has gone, 
Taking with it those memories 
Of the time we spent together 
Of the love we shared, 
The promises that we made. 
Woman, do you remember 
Those words which I spoke, 
Those secrets, which we shared, 
The laughter and the sunshine?
That October was a sunburst 
Of glorious marvelous colors.

Another October has gone
Taking with it those memories 
Of broken promises and stolen kisses,
Of hasty embraces
And tearful farewells.
Woman, do you remember
The words, which you spoke,
The hope you held out 
Like a lantern shining in the dark:
Another October will come
With glorious marvelous colors.

© aletheia

Ishilove: Nawa o. Alatheia, is this the anniversary of The Great Breakup?

aletheia:

.
.
.
Of hasty embraces
And tearful farewells.
Woman, do you remember
The words, which you spoke,
The hope you held out 
Like a lantern shining in the dark: