Love Song:
A Poet's Confession
by Dale Neibaur, @1976
Beware a poet's promised love
A poet's silk enchanted phrase
Beware the soft-touched velvet glove
The promised happiness.
Beware the way he strings his words together
Just to please himself
And please take care you don't believe
The hidden meaning.
A poet will promise anything
If it fits his metered rhyme
He's working for perfection
Not precision.
The simple songs of everlasting love
A poet sings
Will only bring you pain
If you believe in them.
Does he tell you that he loves you?
Check the line above
And see if maybe rhyme
Is not the reason.
And if there's starlight in your eyes
And moonlight in your golden hair
Make sure it's really there;
He may be teasing you
Or only pleasing his own sense of time.
Beware the pleasing songs of dreams
A poet weaves
He spins them from his head
And not his heart.
The words of graceful simpleness
A poet breathes
Will catch you unawares
And break your heart.
If he tells you he'll be true forever
Don't believe a word
He'd sing the selfsame song
To anyone who'd listen.
One day he'll tell you
That he'll leave you never
Next day he'll be gone
And all that talk of living easy lives
And kissing cares goodbye
Is only
Words on words a poet speaks
To anyone who'll hear
Emotions he creates
For simple pleasure.
And as an artist paints of things
Only an artist's eye can see
A poet makes things look
The way he'd like them all to be.
So if he tells you you're his one and only
Don't believe a word
There's too much loneliness
In waiting for tomorrow.
And though he writes his poems
To please your ears
And not to break your heart
If you believe it all
You know there's only sorrow
Waiting there for you.
A poet's love will only bring you sorrow.