Sunday, March 28, 2010

A Poem for My Wife

I'm learning to simply accept these long gaps in posts. Not ideal for readers, but it's the best I can manage right now.

I wanted to share a poem with everyone. This is one that I wrote for my wife, Rihoko, for Valentine's Day. She was trying to figure out what I was planning for more than a week.

I am not a poet. My writing has always leaned strongly toward fiction. But I think poetry is a great method for any writer to stretch their muscles.

After looking at a few different forms of poetry I settled on the Villanelle. It was something new for me, and forced me to adhere to a certain form. I spent small pieces of time on it over the course of a week, finally settling on a draft that I could present to a few critique readers. Yes, I wanted to make sure it was the best poem I could write for her.

I presented the poem to her on the evening of Valentine's Day. We managed to get the kids to sleep on time and were planning on sitting down together, something we don't have the opportunity to do very often with the busy pace of our lives. I lit a few candles for atmosphere, and brought out a bottle of wine. i had actually filled our wine bucket with snow, which we had in abundance at that time. It did a great job of keeping the wine cold, but also looked a lot better than a pile of ice cubes. Then I handed her the journal.

I have several journals which have been gifted to me over time. I'm a writer, and that seems to be a natural option for others when shopping for my birthday or Christmas. Personally, I love it. I enjoy collecting journals, and force myself to work on filling them as frequently as possible.

I have one that was not being used, and decided to try something new to show my affection for Rihoko. Periodically, I would read through some of my books of poetry, trying to find something that would cause me to think of my wife. I've hand written in several poems, both classic and contemporary, that helped me to express my feelings. It was in this journal that I wrote out the poem I've included below. For me it was a much better choice than a dozen roses. Not only did I save money on the increased cost of flowers, but I gave my wife something personal, something she can cherish, something that is unique and hers alone.

Here is the poem I wrote for my eternal beloved, my wife, whom I love very much.

Every Day I Learn to Love You More
by Michael Colwill

Every day I learn to love you more,
and the bluebell brings a melody new;
the sun's caress is warmer than before.

At daybreak's hour, barefooted, you go for
a walk, lightly kissed by the morning's dew.
Every day I learn to love you more.

Tenderly alighting on earth's green floor
the ground trembles at the touch of you,
and the sun's caress is warmer than before.

The give and take of the waves on the shore,
our shaping of each other's heart adds to
my learning every day to love you more.

With a flower's sweet scent you awaken the core
of me, enticing my love your own to pursue.
The sun's caress is warmer than before.

So tread softly before my heart's door,
this key I've entrusted solely to you,
so every day I can learn to love you more.
Your caress, as sunlight, is warmer than before.

1 comment:

Aaron said...

It wasn't the way it was, but the way I expected it to be. It was the way it perhaps should have been, but was never meant to be. It was simply a lie, something I had made up in my mind, replaced by the truth of life, by the things that people always told me about. Things like bills, traffic, bad weather, and keeping up a marriage. Things like being in college at age 36, tired all the time, feeling alone in a crowded room, and the inability to properly metabolize caffeine, where even the tiniest bit would make my heart race. It's wanting simple pleasures, yet rarely having the time. It's reading a book in the bathroom, because that's the only place that life seems to stop for even a moment, when I'm doing as nature intended. It's so different than anything I thought it would be. Is it worse? Yes. Is it awful? No. I feel out of control, but when I realize that the best thing to do is to realize how out of control the universe is, and simply try to flow along and do good whenever and wherever I can, then I think I might start to truly be happy and at peace.