by Steve King
© 2010
All rights reserved
I have been reminded
many and enough ways,
that love alone will ever serve
to rectify our days.
Love is a hardening prison:
we toil in passion’s chains;
and when our term at last is spent
we seek that cell again.
Tangled in these fetters
I struggle not so much;
my torture is to languish here,
glad for my jailer’s touch.
I shall never weary
of love’s most shackling songs,
nor wonder, as you’re singing them,
to whom they next belong.
That's the kind of jail
ReplyDeleteFor which I wouldn't want bail
A wonderful write
Seeing love's light
I never thought of equating it with the jail but I do see your points. I specially like:
ReplyDeleteLove is a hardening prison:
we toil in passion’s chains;
and when our term at last is spent
we seek that cell again.
I loved the prison metaphor; great poem. These are my favorite lines:
ReplyDelete"Love is a hardening prison"
"glad for my jailer’s touch"
This is so personally applicable its hard for me to see it as the excellent product of the craft it is--it reminds me of all my favorite dead poets, I suppose because of the reflective prison of rhyme and meter followed like a prisoner on a chain gang follows the man he's chained to--reinforcing the metaphor. the worst part, I find, is how much harder the jail breaks get over time--must be that Maximum Security thing.
ReplyDeletethere is some comfort in bondage you know...in that jail, in which there is a lot of freedom within the confines of that love....glad for the jailers touch...yeah i like that...
ReplyDeleteLove certainly is a surrender...to entanglements, sometimes bondage, and certainly that last stanza resonates. I like this piece, Steve :))
ReplyDeleteGood poem, love does have a way of shackling us!
ReplyDeleteWander
Nice write, Steve.
ReplyDeleteI love the rhythm and rhyme throughout and the metaphor-
ReplyDeleteLove is a hardening prison