Saudade

I got carried away by the wind,

and my fingers brushed eternity.

I stood unveiled, naked, and fair-skinned;

and I just wanted you to want me.

With a quill of wind and morning dew

among soft leaves slumbering serene,

I wrote a love poem just for you

in a summer dress of evergreen.

You gently let down my braided hair

and let the ringlets in silence fall.

Your breath a psalm, a hopeful prayer,

a moonlight melody to recall.

I closed my eyes as you touched my face.

Your touch was O! ever so tender!

A whisper of words, the gift of grace,

and an evensong of surrender.

When the passion sailed into the blue,

I cast a pebble into the sea.

It fell in love as I fell in you

as you fell deeply in love with me.

I watched you come, and I watched you go.

You entered my life only to part,

and still you linger like lamplight’s glow

in the shuttered darkness of my heart.

I am surrounded by memories,

scattered like ashes upon a page,

and wrap myself with the best of these

as I look back and grow old with age.

A flower’s breath blooms in want of you.

She was so lovely back in the spring.

I wait for you as I always do

invoking a dream on gentle wing.

Author's Note

Reviews

[Richard🖌]

O' Linda Marie!
"Stunning" exemplifies every line and verse, the picture and music so deeply stirring to the senses, add perfection in ambiance. The title(?) … well, that is an emotionally descriptive poem in itself, befitting every aspect of this enthrallingly romantic moment of sadly wistful yearning.
Then, another mystery … I am not quite certain why there is a sense of (emotional, technical, syntactic, something personal … I don't know, Linda) effort that seeps through in places, and I'm just thinking aloud here, as even if I had the chance, I'd amend an iota of nothing.
What has always astonished me about your poetry is: Every time I think you cannot possibly improve, I'm turned into a liar; and, I dearly love it!

This one is uniquely special, M'Lady, in so many ways, in imagery, tenderness, emotion, metaphor, and depth, blah-blah-blah … thank you so very deeply and sincerely for sharing your resplendent heart-touches, Linda Marie … with warmest appreciation and highest regard! ⁓ Richard

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Dear Richard,

Thank you very much. I always find this feeling flowing through my veins, into my pen, and spilling onto the page. Inevitably, my poems seem to come back to this. I honestly think it comes from being that child who always desired the love of her parents and never had it. Then, to fall irreducibly in love with one man, only to have that falter as well, well, you can imagine. The beauty of a rose may fade, but the memory of its petals and its fragrance remains. Such is the love desired and never gained, and the love that swept so sweetly through my soul only to part. It's an echo that always resounds, sadly, sweetly, succinctly.

Your reviews are like wings. They make me soar.

~ Linda Marie

[Richard🖌]

Yes, I understand your plight, and you are so very welcome to my humble words in review of your, oh, so very real to me, poetry that speaks to my core.
How my reviews are for you, Linda Marie, your poems are for me … the very same.

Truly and warmly! ⁓ Richard

[Nipplegrinder]

This touched every fiber of my heart. So, so beautifully penned. Wistful, starkly romantic, metaphors of nature, longing, nostalgia.
"An evensong of surrender".
Yeah.

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Thank you. I was pleased that my words evoked the feelings that I wanted them to. While often the hardest thing to do, when achieved, it is an accomplishment to be proud of. Thank you for your thoughts.

[Nipplegrinder]

This effort is one you should cherish. I know this touches me deeply.

[Fabian G. Franklin]

You are a true romantic in the artistic sense of the word. This was soft and beautiful like the warmth of a kitten beneath the hand. I greatly enjoyed every word. I also believe it is a great gift to be able to transmute the feeling onto the page and have it read to deliver the same response as the emotion deserves. That is magic and you are a magician of the highest order here.

[Tom]

Romance personified in perfectly pure, poetic metaphorical methodology, could have been penned by any of the old school romantic poets, Byron, Keats, Coleridge to name a few. A serenade of a yearning saudade!

[Ken Simm.]

This is so much more than a simple love poem. It scents of romance like a delicate perfume. I think it is wonderful and misty.

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Ken,

Thank you for reading and for leaving your thoughts behind. I really appreciate you.

[William Liston]

Linda,
This poem is absolutely breathtaking in how it draws the reader in, takes them on a journey, and leaves them in awe till the final stanza. The imagery feels so soft and delicate, especially "a flower's breath blooms in want of you" ... that line was gorgeous. I also enjoyed the symbolism of the pebble in the fifth stanza and how it falling into an ocean is compared to falling in love; it's a simple analogy, but quite unique in how it conveys the speaker's love.
As always, your rhymes and word-flow are smooth and natural.
Brilliant work.

- William Liston

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

William, Thank you so much. I really struggled in writing this one. Sometimes the simplest ones are the hardest for me to write as it's much harder to instill the emotions I want to convey.