HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

For me Valentine's Day is always somewhat bittersweet. My mind cannot help wandering back to lovers now departed and memories that bring both comfort and pain.

At heart I am a true romantic though to be honest I have a tendency to over analyze everything, so that I spend an inordinate amount of time pondering the past and not enough enjoying the present.

So on this day for love and lovers I offer you my all time favorite love poem, written by the brilliant Lord Byron.

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

I committed this poem to memory almost thirty years ago for perhaps the one true love of my life. My one regret is that our relationship ended before I ever had the opportunity to share it with her.

Since then I have never found another who loved or appreciated poetry enough to inspire me to share this with them.

Perhaps someday.