All Things Beautiful Poem by David Ellsworth

I cannot put you into rhyme

You would refuse to go there

Having once said, “If you can describe love.... It isn’t”

And you are the same

I cannot dress you in words and do you justice

Adjectives fall upon themselves in the effort

And metaphors mumble in confusion

While searching for comparisons

Because you were the source of it all

All things must be compared to you

And beauty should have bowed when you passed



Your smile was never like the sunrise

Rather, the sunrise imitated your smile

And when I saw stars reflected in your eyes

The stars were made more beautiful

Some men are correct to offer the compliment

“You look beautiful in that dress”

That was inappropriate with you and I would gasp

“That dress looks beautiful on you”

The standard of all things lovely lived in you

And with a glance the sister nymphs danced

And all was well in the kingdom of my soul



And so it is now.... now that you are gone

When leaves whisper about the wind

I know they gossip of why I walk alone

Why my arm reaches for the empty space beside me

And crickets spread rumors across the night

Even the streamlet frog grunts his agreement

Because without you all things beautiful

Depend upon each other for definition

And grow lonely in the task

And I am composed of memories, nothing more

Repeating them like butterflies going home