This first was a Rez Day gift from an anonymous friend.
The Rose of Loch Avie
Oh, Caledon's a country
Where love and war are bold
Of glory won in Caledon
A thousand tales are told
But I've a tale far sweeter
If you'll give ear to me
Of a bonny bloom of Caledon
The Rose of Loch Avie
A fire burns on Loch Avie
To give the darkness light
The Uisge they distill there
Will put your woes to flight
But brighter yet than need fire
more sweet than drink can be
Is Caledon's own darling
The Rose of Loch Avie
The revels held on Loch Avie
Will draw a merry throng
To dance to pipe and fiddle
And laugh the whole night long
Fair guesting there, to warm the heart
And raise a shout of glee
The welcome cheer extended by
The Rose of Loch Avie
A quiet walk along the Loch
Will ease a troubled mind
At every turn there's new delight
The wanderer will find
An ear for every tale of woe
Heart's joy shared fleet and free
A gentle word for sorrow
Has the Rose of Loch Avie
In friendship and in fealty
In courtesy and creed
True and fair and holdfast
To honour's thought and deed
If I went and wrote these praises
on the leaf on every tree
I still would scant the merit of
The Rose of Loch Avie
Nor worldly state, nor riches great
nor peerless pride of place
but nature's stamp of gentleness
that gives the Rose her grace
If ever you're in Caledon
Come raise your glass with me
Salute the Rose without a thorn
That blooms on Loch Avie
***
Poem for an Unnamed Lady - ZenMondo Wormser
Long stood I, outside the gates
Until I found the Key to win my entrance.
A key built of patience, wisdom, charm, and cunning,
to open a lock of beauty, intelligence, talent, and grace.
The lands beyond the gates, I have yet to explore,
finding treasures beyond measure at the threshold.
I am sure more quests lay ahead for this knight-errant
and I look forward to the challenges -- and the rewards.
***
anonymous
cold air off the Loch tonight,
the star-wet sky
thick as stone.
black water shimmer,
heavy as an april river
whose push has clipped
the banks of heather.
as the white moon lifts
I walk along the Loch and sing
for One
whose warm-skin scent
I will never know;
whose most daily sounds--
calling to her children,
slow breathing into sleep,
are blank to me as
grass shifting
in pre-dawn water
along the Loch's silt floor.
for One whose hands
will never fall about my hips
tired at the end of day,
nor whose woman's tongue--
narrow, vivid, strong,
will ever slide along my own.
yet still, tonight,
a tender song for her,
at this hour breathing slow
beside her husband-lover
hours closer to the Dawn.
***
A Red Red Rose - Robert Burns, 1794
O my love is like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June;
My love like the melody
That's sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonny lass,
So deep in love am I;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.
Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only love!
And fare thee weel, awhile!
And I will come again, my love
Though it were ten thousand mile.
***
These last two poems were found on Miss Kiralette Kelly's lovely site, What the Mouse Saw
Sonnet 18 ~ William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as man can breath, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
***
True Love - Anonymous
True love is a sacred flame
That burns eternally,
And none can dim its special glow
Or change its destiny.
True love speaks in tender tones
And hears with gentle ear,
True love gives with open heart
And true love conquers fear.
True love makes no harsh demands
It neither rules nor binds,
And true love holds with gentle hands
The hearts that it entwines.
