One Plus One Is One

Eyes held wide open

Yet vision unclear

Lips often tremble

No words reach your ear

Eyes often blinded

By welling of tears

Tongue also vacant

Beholden to fear

Hold me in your heart

Days, a month, or years

After lifetimes pass

You will find me here

Hold me in your arms

Hold tight, draw me near

My hopes and my dreams

You’re all I hold dear

Song of Sappho

Song of Sappho
Six Sapphic Stanzas
James M M Baldwin


Waning lavender daylight colors your hair
Bluish purple locks envy of the violets
Purple curls charm Lydia’s renowned dyers
Lavender tresses

Petite Olive skinned loveliness unrivaled
Lips of gathered nectar from golden roses
Hypnotic umber eyes captivating gaze
Olive skinned beauty

Originator of celestial songs
Honored among the greatest lyric poets
Odes divine oh Sappho's songs from the tenth muse
Celestial songs

Poetic passion for all things beautiful
Love's infatuations unrequited
Aristocratic art of Socratic love
Poetic passion

Lyrics of the wind-shaken olive tree branches
Fair words produce unwakable comatose sleep
Poetic choruses awaken the dead
Lyrics of the wind

Sing a song of Sappho so that I may die
Athens' Solon desired her song more than life
Lyrics worthy of sacred admiration
So that I may die