Since My Beloved’s Death
Since his death, my cryptic lover has arranged my life right over
Into something odd and eerie, weird, disquieting—I’m leery
Not of ghosts, spirits, phantasms, or of devils’ arcane chasms
But of gaiety and sunlight and those things that once were right
For breathing life into old souls—now my new kinship is with moles,
Uncanny, strange, peculiar, creepy, and with bats, with creatures weepy,
Wailing, enigmatic, curious, with things dark and dire and spurious—
Now, unnatural and bizarre unsettling things surpass by far
Those former comforts and delights that soothed my days and lit my nights.
With my lover’s jarring death came an uncanny loss of breath
That turned my sense of truth elastic, to include the strange, fantastic,
Doubtful, worrying, portentous and the puzzling, the momentous—
I have seen since that dark minute all the sinister things in it
Turn to lovely deviant longings, love of the aberrant, wrong things,
Something like a lust for sorrow and disgust for growth, tomorrow,
Or any such former hopes—now esoteric isotopes
Reflecting what I once desired, but with a twisted, counter-wired,
Left-handed version of the past. At this I might have been aghast
Before, but now it’s all I crave, since both of us lie in the grave.
For that, you see, explains my ache for things outlandish, no mistake:
That when my late beloved died, I did so too; am at his side
Within the crypt, where our decease no more is strange or ominous
But makes it plausible that I should love the darkness where we lie.
Art-Colored Glasses 
Love these paintings, the poem is awesome, bemusing almost, but i love the paintings! c
Thank you, my dearie-dear! I’m so pleased you like them–some of my very small collection of watercolors. Thus far, anyway. I will try some more at some point, I should think.
As per Ceciliag, above, “bemusing” concurred. She most always appears here first on your blog, dear one aka K.I. Sparks, and her assessments of your exquisite comments & poetry also almost always reflect this one’s aka L.L.’s admiring opinions…
Well, my darling, Celi beats most people to the punch by being up VERY early indeed every morning, that’s for sure. Me, I think 9 a.m. is mighty early. But honestly, whatever time of day I get to come by and hear such gracious and generous support and kindness from my good friends is a great time of day!! [Happy sigh.] xo
a fabulous depth to the paintings, and the words
You are so sweet, Claire! Thank you.
“Turn to lovely deviant longings, love of the aberrant, wrong things,” – this line is my favourite Kathryn, love it! 🙂
Why am I not surprised! 😉 Methinks we have a certain streak of the darkly romantic in common! 🙂
You could be right! 🙂
Beautiful!
Glad you enjoyed it, my friend. 🙂
Poignantly mournful…very oldly worldly feel about the verse…your watercolors stunning!
Thank you, my dear. Watercolor is not, as you know, a typical medium for me, but fun when I do try it in various ways.