Love Is proof 6

LIovse

Poetry by Theodore A. Borrillo



LIovse

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by Theodore A. Borrillo

Copyright 2017
Theodore A. Borrillo
Littleton, Colorado

U.S.A.
All rights reserved
Names of individuals in any poems are fictitious and not
intended to represent any person, living or dead.

ISBN-xxx

Other Poetry Books by Author
Beyond Loneliness

Random Thoughts for Rainy Days
In My Spare Time

Poems From a Bystander
Thirteen poems among the 58 poems herein have

previously appeared in the author’s earlier
published poetry books.
Acknowledgements
Bill Assini ‑ Editor

Tucumcari, New Mexico
David Robison - Graphic Design

II x

Dedicated to
Janet

a friend
and to all who love and are loved

and who
see the world,
the brightness of its colors
the warmth of its love

and
the hope of its future

x III



Preface

Love is defined as “a strong affection for or
attachment or devotion to a person or persons.”

Among all the needs of people, the greatest is to
experience love - to love, and to be loved.

Of course, with love comes the risk of being
rejected, unloved, left floundering with wonder
when love runs out, while experiencing all the
emotions that center around the various love themes
and expressions - the pain of loss, the fear of living
without someone you love, the discovery of new
love, the possessive nature of old love and on and
on. Moreover, however, love is accompanied by joy
and laughter, fidelity and commitment.

Although much has been written about love, a
reader never tires of love stories and, in fact, is in
constant search of more because everyone’s life
is impacted by love, by actual love or by dreams
of love.

The power of love awakens the potential within us
and makes us conscious of all that is around us, and
we begin to see ourselves and the world differently.

Love is the defining experience in one’s life and
reshapes us in ways we cannot forget, even through
the pain of loss.

The journey of love and its discovery is always
meaningful, and while at times it moves over a
bumpy road, it always remains worth the ride and
its memory.

I am pleased that you have elected to join with me
in pondering the surroundings of life, its thoughts,
its sights and its emotions as expressed in poems.

Theodore A. Borrillo — 2017

xV

What Is Love?

It has been said that
LOVE CAN BE MANY THINGS

As for example
Love is what makes two people sit in the middle of a
bench when there is plenty of room at both ends.
- Author unknown.
Love is a mystery. You can’t find it; it has to find
you. - Author unknown.
Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look
which becomes a habit. - Peter Ustinov.
Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to
the problem of human existence. - Erich Fromm.
Love is missing someone whenever you’re apart, but
somehow feeling warm inside because you’re close
in heart. - Kay Knudson.
Love is the thing that enables a woman to sing while
she mops the floor after her husband has walked
across it in his barn boots. - Author Unknown, as
printed in The Hoosier Farmer.
Love is a game that two can play and both win.
- Eva Gabor.
Love is the poetry of the senses. - Honore de Balzac.
You can give without loving, but you cannot love
without giving. - Author Unknown.
At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.
- Plato.
You learn to like someone when you find out what
makes them laugh, but you can never truly love
someone until you find out what makes them cry.
- Author Unknown.
Do I love you because you’re beautiful, or are you
beautiful because I love you? - Rodgers and
Hammerstein II from Cinderella.

VI x

Love one another and you will be happy. It’s as
simple and as difficult as that. - Michael Leunig.
A baby is born with a need to be loved - and never
outgrows it. - Frank A. Clark.
Byron wrote a poem about love, in which a woman
says of men, “you have all these resources and we
but one, to love again and to be again undone.”

****
Advice to a Lover. Take love as a sober man takes
wine; do not become a drunkard. If your mistress is
sincere and faithful, love her for that; but if she is
not, if she is merely young and beautiful, love her for
that; if she is agreeable and spirituelle, love her for
that; if she is none of these things but merely loves
you, love her for that. Love does not come to us
every day. - Alfred de Musset.

Moreover - it has been written
If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not
have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing
cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophesy and
comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge, and if
I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not
have love, I am nothing. If I give everything I own to
the poor, and surrender my body to the flame, but
do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not
pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not
seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it
does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over
wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It always
protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres. Love never fails. - 1 Corinthians, 13: 4-7

x VII

Table of Contents

Preface....................................................................... V
Love Can Be Many Things................................... VI
The Silence of Love...................................................1
If You Love.................................................................3
Counting Love..........................................................5
Let Me Be Your Friend.............................................7
Long Before I Met You.............................................9
As Love Matures.....................................................11
Loneliness................................................................ 13
Early Morning.........................................................15
Favorites................................................................... 17
Love Has No Answers............................................19
The Question...........................................................21
Love Unannounced................................................23
A Lost Love?............................................................25
Fidelity..................................................................... 27
Love and Wine........................................................29
Airport Love............................................................31
Across the Miles......................................................33
When You’re Away.................................................35
The Price of Love....................................................37
Know My Feelings..................................................39
The Mystery of Love...............................................41
The Gift of Sunshine...............................................43
A Second Love........................................................44
The Gift of Nature...................................................47
Love and Medicine.................................................49
Love Plain and Simple...........................................51
Love Without Barriers...........................................53
Confusion................................................................ 55

VIII x

Love’s Lifetime.........................................................57
Time......................................................................... 59
An Unexpected Loss..............................................61
One Moment...........................................................63
Wandering............................................................... 65
Good Morning .......................................................67
What Would I Say?.................................................68
How Is She?.............................................................71
The Woman On The Bus.......................................73
The Loneliness of Love...........................................75
Scrapbooks.............................................................. 77
How Stupid of Me!.................................................79
Only The Loneliness...............................................81
Love Is... ..................................................................83
Love and Those Busy Days....................................85
A Birthday Card From Utica.................................87
A Bus Tour of France.............................................88
I Never Thought I’d See Elaine Again..................90
A Bundle of Love To Someone.............................92
Days.......................................................................... 95
Love at First Sight...................................................97
Love May Last - Perhaps........................................98
And I Wonder.......................................................101
Echoes Of The Past...............................................103
Cleveland Place.....................................................104
How Can Anyone Be Sure of Love?...................106
Seasonal Love........................................................109
The Measure of Love............................................111
Suzy’s Bar...............................................................112
About The Author................................................114

x IX



The Silence of Love

A look from across the room
The silence of a moment
A glance
A smile
No words spoken
But in the silence
Love makes its presence known

x1



If You Love

if you love
love forever
or never
don’t love on condition
or part time
or until the kids are seventeen
love completely
until death
or change the vow
say I’ll love you
until someone better comes along
or until I’m tired of you

x3



Counting Love

There are those who measure love
Like chemists measure test tubes
Like map makers measure distances
And they talk of love in terms of Fahrenheit
And miles and kilometers.
“Do you love me more than I love you?”
“Do you love me with your whole heart?”
“Do you love your work more than you love us?”
Love is not numerical!
Love is immeasurable!
Do not limit love by definition
For to say I love you with my whole heart
Does not say I love you with my spirit or my body

or my soul
Let love alone
And it will find a way to love you
In a way you’ll recognize
Without count or measure.

x5



Let Me Be Your Friend

Let me be your friend
when you’re alone
with no one there
to listen
Let me hear your voice
If only for a moment.
Let me be your friend
when raindrops
touch the leaves
making sounds like music
with no one there
to share the moment.
Let me be your friend
when you’re not sure
which path to take
in life
with no one there
with whom to talk it through.
Let me be your friend
when things are cluttered
and out of balance
when the road is bumpy
and no one is there
to ride with you.
Let me be your friend.

x7



Long Before I Met You

I knew you before I met you
Heard you before we spoke
Touched you before I saw you.
Were you but a dream?
Cigarette smoke soon to disappear?
Or love yet to be born?
I loved you before I knew you
Held you before you were near
Heard you before we spoke.

x9



As Love Matures

I loved you
before I met you
I loved you
before I knew you.
And now that
I know
your moods
your thoughts
your voice
your smiles
the tenderness
of your ways
the holding
of your hand
the way
you do things
so well
your presence
your hello
your welcoming
smile
I love you
because I met you
I love you
because I know you.

x 11



Loneliness

Loneliness is when you are not here
It is the empty space at the dinner table
Loneliness is when the phone does not ring
When I don’t feel you next to me in bed
Loneliness is when I can’t hold your hand
When I sit alone on our bench by the lake
Loneliness is when your voice is not heard
When we cannot talk about the odds and ends
Loneliness is being alone - it is when
I cannot see you
I cannot hear you
I cannot touch you
Loneliness is being alone - just alone!

x 13



Early Morning

It’s early morning
And I can hear the rain
Watering the grass of summer
As I lie awake relaxing
to its rhythm
My heart beats to the drops
heard on the rooftop
And lets me dream of you
so many miles away -
I know not where -
And wonder if you are
in sunshine or in rain
in happiness or in pain
And do you
sometimes think of me
in early morning
wherever you may be
and do you hear my heartbeat
longing for you
like I hear the raindrops
on the rooftops

x 15



Favorites

There are places I like more than others
And things and people
Like smiles
Like sunny days
Like San Francisco
Like friendships
Like you.

x 17



Love Has No Answers

Love is
A mystery
Never to be fully understood
Never ending its pursuit
For two people
From somewhere
To meet
No questions asked
Drawn together
By its external power
A source unknown
But somehow
Guiding them
Toward togetherness
Toward a meeting of the minds
And hearts
Thoughts shared without words
Without explanations
Without details
Just a knowing silence
A glance
A simple holding of hands
Love has no answers
It simply asks
To be accepted
To be trusted
To be embraced

x 19



The Question

You are far away
And yet I see you
You do not speak
And yet I hear you
You sleep alone
And yet I caress you
What is this mystery of life?
These thoughts ...
Is it longing?
Is it loneliness?
Or could it be love?

x 21



Love Unannounced

Loves comes without credentials
without a resume
of medals earned
or country club pedigrees
Love comes
without an introduction
without warnings
without description
Love comes on tiptoes
Unannounced
At a time or place you least expect
Like in a crowded train
Or under an awning that shelters you
from the rain
Love comes in silence
And brings you joy and happiness
You never dreamed could be

x 23



A Lost Love?

Lost in
a distant dream
is a love
that seems
to have
once existed
but no longer is -
a love
beyond my being
but, somehow,
not beyond
my dreams -
dreams of
time gone by
of a love
that seems
as though
it’s close by
but in reality
no longer exists
and perhaps
never was.

x 25



Fidelity

Is fidelity the price
we pay
for love
Or is it the reward?

x 27



Love and Wine

Wine
matures with age
as does love.
Together
they make
for
beautiful evenings
and a long life.

x 29



Airport Love

The world will be a better place
If people love one another
With the fervor, the joy, and the
embraces
Of those who say hello and goodbye
at airports.

x 31



Across the Miles

You are never far away
when across the miles
for
you are in my heart -
the shortest distance
to love

x 33



When You’re Away

When you’re away
And I am left alone
With only
My imagination
And thoughts of days gone by
Memories of familiar places
Some photographs
A souvenir or two
The days are long
And loneliness sets in
Your voice no longer near
To comfort me
My love for you
Frozen in time
And never changing
When you’re away
Wherever you may be

x 35



The Price of Love

(a lover’s lament)
There is no way to ease the pain of parting
when loving you
was all that ever mattered.
You come to mind when I’m in a city that we
sometimes talked about,
Like when I walk along the lakes of Okoboji.
Sometimes you interrupt a thought I have
that has nothing to do
with any part of us.
But then again, you come to mind when I least
expect,
Like when I’m in some book store or boutique.
So easily you come to mind when I can’t
control the longing
that I have for you.
Sometimes I think you’ll reappear just by my
waiting or looking
at a place familiar to us both.
There are those who believe it better to have
loved and lost
than not to have loved at all,
so they say.
Each to his own,
But I find loneliness too great a price to pay.

x 37