“How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.”
Valentine’s Day,
definitely the time
to answer that query.
One, two, three, four . . .
forty-seven, forty-eight,
fifty-three wedded years.
Seven dogs we called our friends,
two children, nurtured and loved,
five wonderful grands.
Strolling Singapore’s orchid gardens,
admiring Japan’s cherry blossoms,
walking atop the Great Wall.
Meandering beside Lake Michigan’s shores,
through London’s fog, Alaska’s snow,
Bryce’s hoodoos, Yosemite’s trails.
From Iowa to Sweden to Australia too.
Easiest answer to that question?
So many ways over so many years.
Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today, on Valentine’s Day, Sanaa is hosting and asks us to write “plainly” about love.
Photos top row, left to right: summer 1974, pregnant with Abbey, our first child; at the Great Wall outside of Beijing; in Japan enjoying the cherry blossoms. Bottom row: in an underground cave in Bermuda about 8 years ago; and finally, us here in San Diego just seven days ago, February 7th, celebrating our 53rd anniversary! Thankful for every day.
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” — from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43.
lillian the home poet