It is Valentine's Day and I don't think I can let it pass without something on my blog, I am a middle aged woman after all - or should that just read 'I am a woman after all'? I am going to offer you a selection of pieces (does this bring to mind the 'nettted' selection stockings that you would be given as a child at Christmas? Consider it in the same way.)
Is love a tender thing?
It is too rough, too
rude, too boist'rous,
and it pricks like a thorn'.
(Romeo and Juliet)
This painting of Shakespeare's fictional lovers by Frank Dicksee was voted the most romantic work of art currently on display in UK museums and galleries.
All this talk of Romeo and Juliet is making my 'life soundtrack' run through my head - Dire Straits: Romeo and Juliet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tim4VzHUUyQ
Not Love Pehaps
Not Love Perhaps
Not Love Pehaps
Not Love Perhaps
This is not Love, perhaps,
Love that lays down its life,
that many waters cannot quench,
nor the floods drown,
But something written in lighter ink,
said in a lower tone, something, perhaps, especially our own.
A need, at times, to be together and talk,
And then the finding we can walk
More firmly through dark narrow places,
And meet more easily nightmare faces;
A need to reach out, sometimes, hand to hand,
And then find Earth less like an alien land;
A need for alliance to defeat
The whisperers at the corner of the street.
A need for inns on roads, islands in seas,
Halts for discoveries to be shared,
Maps checked, notes compared;
A need, at times, of each for each,
Direct as the need of throat and tongue for speech.
Love that lays down its life,
that many waters cannot quench,
nor the floods drown,
But something written in lighter ink,
said in a lower tone, something, perhaps, especially our own.
A need, at times, to be together and talk,
And then the finding we can walk
More firmly through dark narrow places,
And meet more easily nightmare faces;
A need to reach out, sometimes, hand to hand,
And then find Earth less like an alien land;
A need for alliance to defeat
The whisperers at the corner of the street.
A need for inns on roads, islands in seas,
Halts for discoveries to be shared,
Maps checked, notes compared;
A need, at times, of each for each,
Direct as the need of throat and tongue for speech.
(ASJ Tessimond)
Soundtrack of Life (if you don't understand this reference I will explain at some point) is running 10cc - I'm not in Love
'I like to see you
But then again
That doesn't mean you mean that much to me
So if I call you
Don't make a fuss
Don't tell your friends about the two of us'.
But then again
That doesn't mean you mean that much to me
So if I call you
Don't make a fuss
Don't tell your friends about the two of us'.
I'm not in love, no no, it's because...'
- The End of The Affair (Graham Greene)
- Love doesn't end, just because we don't see each other.
- Doesn't it?
- People go on loving God, don't they? All their lives. Without seeing him.
- That's not my kind of love.
- Maybe there is no other kind.
Valentine
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.
Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.
I am trying to be truthful.
Not a cute card or a kissogram.
I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.
Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.
Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.
I am trying to be truthful.
Not a cute card or a kissogram.
I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.
Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.
Carol Ann Duffy
I have realised that all of the 'selections here are not traditionally 'romantic'. If I am to contine to think of this post as a confectionary selection it will have to be made of plain bitter sweet chocolate, not the sweet confection I anticipated it to be.
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