On Tuesdays there is a poetry and music open mic at Northlight Book & Cafe in Cotati, California. I’ve been going there off and on for about a year to recite and/or sing classical poems. Recently an exceptionally beautiful woman started talking to me. This never happens to me, so of course I was instantly enamored.
The last time we talked, we sat on a bench out in front of the cafe and covered a few topics. At one point she sang to me, right there next to me, and my heart soared so high it came back covered in moondust. This is the sort of thing I’ve fantasized about since I was a toddler. So, my 2nd villanelle.
For Me Alone
For Julene Beeson
Her voice like golden harps of heaven rang,
As on a bench we sat within the night;
For me, for me alone her heart she sang.
To lucid resonance from mystic tang
Her depths of beauty shone transcendent light;
Her voice like golden harps of heaven rang.
Within my chest a soft celestial pang
Lay cradled twixt deep longing and delight;
For me, for me alone her heart she sang.
Angelic sweetness round us seemed to hang;
Divinely wrought with chords of richness bright
Her voice like golden harps of heaven rang.
Tremendous joys from depths inside me sprang;
My heart, in rapture, soared to starry height;
For me, for me alone her heart she sang.
As if emerging from an ageless pang,
I woke to living there before her sight;
Her voice like golden harps of heaven rang;
For me, for me alone her heart she sang.
