Tolstoy's War And Peace Poem by Thomas Bates

Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' - events and history
(also, Love) caught
in the making: these years
surrounding the year 1812: a time of
radical change,
marriages, destruction and rebirth - memories
full of battle and reverence and
tomfoolery; foolish claims and
passion for winning over another nation.
Russia was infiltrated by Napoleon's
supposedly ingenious advances.


mean while, in my life with you outside those pages
I felt a change, too - a shifting in the air
before fully realizing
you had
entered the room.
(it's happened like this before,
like the senses growing faint and
docile
to someone unexpectedly approaching.)

there are 'givers' and there are 'takers'
and finders and those who weep
but I wanted nothing more
than to take some of the warmth you gave me freely,
to find
some new avenue of human truth to
pursue.my gaze concentrated too much on books every day
and maybe memories, too,
of mingled fear and joy
becoming satiated.
maybe one day my heart will forgive my wandering aside
from the life I shared with you
and provide the flourish
of moving further along
from a life dragged by secrecy
and eyes reprimanded by the scenery,
coming into my life
like
a sudden and naked modesty.





by Thomasjbates