Missed Connections in North Jersey
In Response To W.S.
In Response To WS
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
W.S.”
–
You cannot err, your sentiment is true.
Are you seeking to find a reflection shared in few;
To be heard upon the ears of patience from one who has waited
Believing souls, at long last, are mated?
An intrepid heart upholds undying truth
Laughs at doom and inspires youth
Reaches within the cave of despair
Lights a fire and continues from there
But how do we attain a Love so instated?
With fake facades and ego’s inflated,
We get lost. Percolating, time will tell
How those other fabricated fornicators cast such spells
No. Alas that isn’t Love.
Nor is it when it turns away
They never loved you anyway
After, you keep Love’s warming fire when all is lost
That which you seek, you may find, but time it costs.
Through any doubt you may conceive,
It is not something one can question, just believe
Love can be
Her Two Cents
To the best of my internet searching abilities, it appears that the second poem is indeed an original response to William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 (of which a decent “interpretation” is available). The bard’s words are well designed for the early stages of romantic love while our North Jersey poet addresses what can happen after those heady days. Regardless of where we find ourselves positioned in relationship to it, the essence of love is always present, that is a true constant in our ever-shifting landscapes.
