Birthday Poem, For You Etta Poem by STANLEY PACION

Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye,
Since dawn of humanity, since time immemorial,
Playwrights and poets have often repeated,
Proclaimed similar sentiment and theme!

I lay no claim to talent equal to theirs.

I write pages, and today I wish
To add another chapter, a modest contribution,
To the big-book history of love.
I want my verse to be a part of this tradition.

Darling, I believe you have already learned
What it is like to hurry home
Hoping to lean on the one you adore
Instead to find an empty room, waiting and waiting?

Love, shall we deny it when it visits?

Shall we not take what we are given?

In the day light, or beneath the stars,
However daily business overwhelms the hours,
Love; there is only love, all else unreal.

What is life, what more than being near you?

Oh! That I have been given to you and you to me,
How sacred the exchange, how holy the alliance!