yours is a beauty that defies reason
a beauty that defines each season
in quiet cold, or a birthing psalm
in majestic play, or a healing calm
the stars transpose your form above
the jealous trees whisper your love
reverent the sun would bend his knee
revealing his envy of none but me
for you illuminate the darkest night
for you the angels above take flight
Salt Lake City 28 April 2023
It is so sweetly appealing
how insistently she denies
what is to me undeniable:
how beautiful she is!
Acclaim as you will the thrilling
beauty filling your eyes
from any vantage point
across this vast globe.
Paint your praises over
falls and halls and hallowed
ground abounding with myth
and legendary fame.
But never will you find
in filial devotion or motioned
distraction, scaling skyward
heights or floating aloft,
nothing that can compare
with the inescapable charm
and the ever warmly imploring
loveliness that I see every day
when my sweet love
smiles my way.
Salt Lake City 04 July 2022
Nae, I could not enumerate,
had I a lifetime tae share,
the blessings that you endow,
so let these words suffice
as quietly this solitary night
I stare at these images of you:
beyond your beauty and charm
beyond your clever wit
and ever engaging spirit,
I maun this too impart that
so much can be conveyed
in the simplest smile.
Oh, most modest, my love,
never doubt the charity
of this unassuming act.
For surely you must now know—
however heavy may fall
the burdens of my days—
one look at your smiling face
and I am sweetly uplifted
above fear, beyond care
tae a joy serene and true.
salt lake city 14 may 2022
There is not in this world a place
nor a time defined by the needs of others
that can guide these limbs, these notions
forward quite so remarkably
as does the merest thought of you.
In my deepest heart I cradle yet
every memory of you, so bold
and beautiful beyond any words
that even I could evoke to assist me,
for you are nothing short of exquisite.
I have treasured your playful voice
teasing and taunting me to debate,
your voracious mind consuming
knowledge in a manner undaunted,
daring arrogant truth itself to concede.
Your laughter illuminated the dark
daring me to be more than me, as you
filled the room with such vibrancy
that I had never witnessed before
no matter how far I have traveled.
But at this moment, this bare time
of mine, as the craven cold creeps
into my bones and the sun descends
wearily once more—at this time
what I miss most about my love, you
is the boundless power of your touch
to hold back the darkening tide
and bid mighty Ra himself return
across the heavens with a warmth
that only you could ever command.
İstanbul 21 November 2021
A mist shrouds this ancient land
as the gloaming grays the skies in
ashen pink hues that stubbornly refuse
to reveal all that I know must be there.
Where are the gossamer threads
of light glancing gleeful off the water?
Where the playfully sauntering greens
that grin from each layering leaf?
But the richest colors I have ever known
silken sweep across your cheeks,
descending deftly down your hair
like the wondrous warm russet of dawn,
the ever rising intimacy of the sun’s
first light before which even the gods—
curating creators of all we behold—
humbly bow in worshipful obeisance.
With most adoring eyes
and a heart trembling at once
have I marveled at the beauty…
of the sky rending Redwoods
in the mountains above
sunset glowing Santa Cruz,
of the majestically marbled
library of the Ephesians where
scholars debated the cosmos,
of the divinely devoted Duomo
of Firenze, its meticulous panels
of pink and green contemplating God,
of the serene stone symmetry
invoking the voice of eternity
rising to the temple of Miidera at Otsu,
of the darkness dwelling depths
of the Grand Canyon from the
skying heights of a helicopter…
and yet would I always choose,
my one and only unbelieving love,
to hold my gaze forever on you.
Brightly lithesome she dances across the sky
my joyful lunar maid, my all
her winsome ways ever appalling the jealous sun
so somber and staid, and she
unwilling to stay his commanded course
playfully japes with a rhyme.
How haughtily he cringes, wincing at her smiles
her lips teasing in mirth
birthing yet another game to play, a song to sing
my jocund jesting one
testing the stodgy sun with each twirling reel
feeling fully alive and sublime.
“Do you know,” I ask, as she passes again
barely glancing down,
“how much I adore you, mo gealach àillidh
my fair fae one on high?”
“Then rise,” she says, treading the night
“and know the truth of time.”
it came as no surprise to me then
and yet i delighted in the sight
of you standing beneath the great tree
still gathering sparkles of sunlight
jealously shielded by the canopy above
the sun could not bear to part from you
delighted at your gentle touch
along the bark of this ancient weaver
entwining emeralds in the air about you
bobbing lightly through the shadows
wanting only to be close to you
the finest jewels suffer at your sight
how can i express the joy i felt
seeing you there, your lovely hair
gleefully glancing here waving there
nothing could i even now compare
to the serenity in your face
peace itself bows reverently before you
that moment belonged to you, m’eudail
mind you the music across the park
the pipes had begun to play and all would say
that the melody so fair was like the song
that flows from your sweet lips
music adores thee as well, my love
i will always mind that tree in Hyde Park
and how you glowed even in the shadows
for the truth of your very being is such
that no darkness could ever shroud the beauty
of my beloved nighean ruadh*
* “Nighean ruadh” translates as “red-haired lass”.
thunderous cries
shiver the skies
frightening fitfull
Cassiopeia enchained
“oh, beauty is mine
magnificent, divine!”
defying the gods
she had boastfully claimed
but the heavens entombed
this queen to her doom
when her pride
too abundantly flowed
now crash the skies
with her copious sighs
while reaping the sins
she conceitedly sowed
uncountable all the more
are the stars of this night
eagerly emerging spreading
over heaven’s ebony dome
assembling like wizened souls
gathering but for a glance
gathering just for the chance
of the blessed sight of you
so very jealous are they
of Ra, the all-seeing sun
who emerges in the east
who disperses the beastly
night so that he too may
witness your beauty
every moment of every
single uncountable day
George Ellington 