Paul Lytle
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This site copyright © 2004-2009 by Paul Lytle. All rights reserved.

by Paul Lytle:

essays by Paul Lytle appear in:

From Perfect World

Generally, my poems seem to fit into two categories — long poems, usually dramatic monologues, and sonnets. I usually have a lot to say, and I love the challenge of saying everything in fourteen lines.

Sonnets are best as love poems, and mine are no exception. I write in a variety of forms of sonnets (I have even invented one), and this is a newer form that is a combination of terza rima (which Dante used) and the traditional sonnet. It creates a wonderful sound that swirls around itself. This particular one has a sadder ending than most of my sonnets, but it is no less a love sonnet, even if love is unrequited.

I waited days to see you sitting there —
The strands of black as fallen lightly o'er
Your cheek, inviting neck (but blocked by hair).

It's just like dreams I've dreamèd just before
The morning light does drag me then away
From perfect worlds I never wish be torn.

Impression seen and play'd in those long days
I spend without a sight of you in view,
And all my thoughts and then my heart betray.

But what to do but sit and stare at you?
For I cannot my hopes and dreams now heed,
But though my heart will push my mind says no —

For as I watch a perfect world repeat,
You watch another man instead of me.

© Copyright 2002 by Paul Lytle. All rights reserved.