Originally, I wrote this in honor of my 50th wedding anniversary. Of course, I was divorced long ago and, even if I had not divorced, my ex-husband is no longer alive, so it wasn’t a real anniversary. Instead, I think this is better dedicated to lovers!
Regardless of the disclaimers, love is one of the best things about being alive, and a big part of life’s memories.
The Quiet World
Jeffrey McDaniel
In an effort to get people to look
into each other’s eyes more,
and also to appease the mutes,
the government has decided
to allot each person exactly one hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.
When the phone rings, I put it to my ear
without saying hello. In the restaurant
I point at chicken noodle soup.
I am adjusting well to the new way.
Late at night, I call my long distance lover,
proudly say
I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.
When she doesn’t respond,
I know she’s used up all her words,
so I slowly whisper I love you
thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.
Falling in love is a very strange thing. Sometimes painful, all-consuming, occasionally transcendent.
After a while, you move on from falling in love to “Loving Someone”.
“When you graduate from “Being In Love” to “Loving Someone” you understand – Love is not about owning, Love is about wanting the best for them, It’s about seeing or helping them achieve great heights, with or without you. Love is not what you say, it’s what you do.”
Growing old with you…
There’s nothing I would rather do,
than to grow old in love with you,
the fun that being with you brings,
our memories made of little things,
the talks we have, the jokes we share,
the hugs, the kisses here and there…
what better reason could there be,
to ask you to grow old in love with me.
There are other kinds of love, of course, some better, but different. Today romance is on my brain.
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
By John Donne
As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls, to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
“The breath goes now,” and some say, “No:”
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
‘Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears;
Men reckon what it did, and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers’ love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refin’d,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to airy thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if the’ other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must
Like th’ other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begun.
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
By E. E. Cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
Stella's Place 
Sense and Sensibility – A Far More Pleasing Countenance (1995)
Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers: Let’s Face the Music and Dance
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I love Jane Austen and I watch the movies over and over! About a month ago, I bought a beautiful hardcover book with all of her writings. Makes my heart happy!
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The sad things about Jane are that, although she had some success in her lifetime, she didn’t become a really famous author until after she died, and that she never found true love in her own life. Her grave in Winchester Cathedral is a place of pilgrimage to her fans.
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It is very sad. There’s a movie called Becoming Jane, I believe, that is supposed to be based on her life. I’m sure it’s all pure fiction, but it does show how she died very young and with little money and little recognition for her talent.
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Lucy Worsley wrote a book called Jane Austen at Home, and she also did a BBC program about it. I saw it, but it has now apparently been deleted from YouTube. Very good, if you get a chance to see it. I’ll look for it elsewhere on the Net, and post a link if I find it.
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Thank you, Stella. 🙂
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I’m wrong! The name of it is Jane Austen, Behind Closed Doors, and it is available here:
https://rutube.ru/video/daf1ef9cf521ed1dbab766392755a155/?ref=logo&bmstart=9
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Can’t wait to watch it with my DD this weekend!
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DD and I just finished watching this, Stella. We thoroughly enjoyed it! Thank you. 😊
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I’m glad you liked it. I like Lucy Worsley and she has a bunch of videos on YouTube. She is a historian, and is Joint Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces.
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Very good to know, thank you. I will check out her other videos.
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Also at DailyMotion:
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“An Old Fashioned Love Song” by Three Dog Night W/Lyrics
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Happy Valentines. The perfect blog for Valentines Day. Enjoyed the poetry.
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Happy Valentine’s day lensdailydiary !
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The poems are beautiful Stella, thank you. The original Sense & Sensibility with Greer Garson and that English guy has always been one of my favs.
Wicked Son called last night. WS has been in the expensive apt for two weeks now, alone. WS, who longed for the life of Evil Mom (a recluse), misses the Wife. DIL is leaving tomorrow early a.m. for North Carolina.
DIL could not have had a better Valentines gift, ever, altho Evil Mom did take her a red rose and some $.
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Jeans2nd, here’s a film clip with Garson and Olivier…is this the film you mean rather than “Sense and Sensibility”?
“Pride and Prejudice” (1940) – Archery
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Thank you Lucille, my mistake. Both are excellent movies, Emma Thompson was great in that S & S movie as well.
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This is an intensely appealing clip (though guys might find it a bit much…LOL!) from the lushly filmed/directed/set decorated/scripted/wardrobed/acted/EVERYTHING… “Sense and Sensibility” (1995)
I’ve seen the film numerous times and always cry at this scene right along with the character. Emma Thompson…what superb acting…beyond superb!
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