A Love Poem

I've never been much for writing Love poems. Words in that time-told tradition Carry such impossible expectation, How to find a way to say Without sounding "sappy" Or like an unschooled boy That feeds on daydreams Yet has no sense of the wise heart of the Truest love. Romeo was a fool, you know. It was Lear who knew the cost Of what he'd lost. Even I, poor beleaguered poet Who ought to know better Struggle to find the best Remarkable word, but it seems truth is always An elusive suitor, that most Complex of human emotions Always inexplicably out of reach. Yet, I can speak in the simplest of Words to make this maze of Feeling somewhat comprehensible: I love you beyond all measure of myself In spite of myself Outside of myself Until self itself is meaningless Without you. You are my life and my life is you. I commit to your spirit for all time. Beyond all time. If there is such a thing as Immortality It must live in this truest Heart of all hearts, the love That must endure when the World as we know it and all That is in it, turns to dust. And I, unlucky in so many things Have, in some fortunate, stumbling way Found this, the greatest of all of Life's Impossible loves. To you, for you, and from you I give, I receive, and take. We two together, the journey joined Today, tomorrow, and forever. ~ Laurence Overmire