To Mary Ann with Love

What do you give a woman who herself is a gift to this needy world? What do you give a woman who has everything: beauty, love, peace, tranquility, contentment, faith, goodness, and kindness? If you were chosen to be in her company and loved by her, you may only give her your everlasting love and devotion, and address her in the language of prophecy, the language of the gods, which is poetry, poetry made of eternal words, dipped in perpetual feelings, and forged in faithfulness and constant loyalty because the Word was in the beginning, and the voice of God descended into the Word and became flesh, and because true feelings are the breath of the gods, and loyalty is the essence of friendship and love. Only a woman like her can command the stars, calm the oceans, teach the birds to sing, the strings to quiver, and the human hearts to bow in worship. Admittedly, some of these poems were written even before I met Mary Ann in person. They were conceived in anticipation of that first encounter with my soulmate. She was always a part of me because she existed within me: first, as an idea, and then, as an inspiration that filled my mind and my soul. Other poems were envisioned after we had met and after we were united in eternal love. Why poetry and love? Because love is the poetry of life, and everything else is prose. Because poetry is the language of prophecy spoken by the angels and gods when they populated this earth before the fall. Hence, the poet is the offspring of that divine race that has since departed our planet to the lofty skies. Man will never regain his divine status until he embraces his spirituality. Consequently, we must use language differently. We have to say less and mean more before we can communicate effectively. Words should be spontaneous and timeless. They are meant to be charged with emotions and to embody visions that illuminate experience and communicate nothing but the truth. The poet is not a prophet if prophecy is understood to be the prediction of future events, but the poet should be viewed as a seer, if instead, prophecy is meant to be a warning that if man continues doing such negative deeds, then the end result will be dire. Although poetry can be national or regional, nevertheless, it shall never be divorced from its universal message and concerns. Man and humanity are the concerns of poetry. Of course, this implies love, emotions and feelings, both spiritual and physical. True, the spiritual is divine, but also the physical is important because "energy is eternal delight." It is within this context that I wrote these poems to Mary Ann, and I hope that they will help make our world a better place, one word at a time.