PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Only five paintings of her on his walls;
but twenty times that many in his poems---
I asked him why.  He said it was respect
both to her nature and her modesty---
without regard to others' worldliness.
The pictures made with choicest artistry
are variations on a single theme---
an outdoor scene in bright, late-spring, sunlight;
a bench on which she sits surrounded by
the lawn on one side and, opposite that,
a pond.  She is clad in her finest gown,
her well-heeled shoes kicked off; her silk-sheathed feet
quite prominent in each.  The portraits show
different perspectives only, close and far.
A single pose done on a single day---
a favor that she was not comfortable
with, really, but allowed for love him.
Others would have demanded what they want,
but not him:  he was gladly limited
by what she would permit, grateful for that.
  I asked him why, unlike some other men,
he had no serving girls to look at there.
He said he did not need them here, nor want
to keep them in submissive slavery.
He said that, to a point and a degree,
even the pleasures of variety
became, for certain men, a storm-tossed sea
of lust in which to drown.  Hence, his devotion
promised always to her, spares the emotion
of infinite desire and then despair:
neither commensurate with licit love.