Love's Arrow Poem by James Walter Orr

She sings the music of the soul,
Of feelings, hope and also love.
Embodiment of all of those,
In turn, embodied by the rose.
When nature’s help, we did enroll,
For that which fits us like a glove,
Encrypted well, one would suppose,
By sentiments one must expose.
The spark that lives inside each coal,
Whose tendrilled smokes that rise above,
And in the star-cast regions drift,
While passion’s heat provides the lift,
That makes our heart accept the gift,
As nocked she cupid’s arrow swift.


In this continuum of time,
I held one moment in my hand.
I held it in my open palm,
And tried to mix a lover’s balm,
But ere could fade the vesper’s chime,
A shadow swept across the land,
Dissolving all my hard-won calm.
Rendered discordant my love’s psalm,
Robbed of its fragrance, my love’s thyme;
It cut hope’s last remaining strand,
And left me but an empty shell
With no place for my love to dwell;
With naught to hold and none to tell
Where her un-erring arrow fell.