This month's poem was chosen by last month's winner, Graham Sherwood. Graham says, "When I first read it I instantly saw that (in my opinion) it was the best piece of work that she has ever written on here."

Find out more about Isobel and her work at http://www.writeoutloud.net/poets/isobel

Upon the Quality of Love

Romeo Romeo - where for art thou Romeo?
Speak now, that I should hear your voice, rejoice
that deafened ear should hear you call my name…
_____________

The quality of love is not defined,
yet trippeth from the tongue with gentle ease,
to each and every one of us a meaning
as fickle as the feather on a breeze

Speak not to me, I pray, of star crossed lovers,
so thwarted by the cruelty of fate,
love by trial and tedium untested,
denied the chance to flourish or to sate

As flowers cleave to sun, so do we clamour,
enamoured by the promise of romance,
blinded by the light to onward stumble,
and in our madness give no backward glance

To lowly soil beneath us oft forgotten,
that nourished once our hearts right to the core,
grounded us to earth its daily tending,
to universal chaos, lent its law

Uprooted we erode to senseless matter,
just desiccated atoms doomed to dust,
planets out of orbit, cased in darkness,
stripped naked of that sacred mantle, trust

For much that speaks of love is surely lust,
lost in a reverie of youth misplaced,
masquerading whore in virgin clothing,
exacting costly penance once embraced

Show me a love that stands the test of time,
beholds its prize through eyes bewitched, beguiled
before a faded bloom, beyond its prime,
to see the sweetest rose or flower wild

Show me a love that does not ask for all,
nor seeks the easy path in life to tread,
sees every facet of a fractured soul
yet loves enough to be by blindness led

Show me a love that does not seek to change
to chip, to hew to mould; instead to hold
such imperfection to the brightest light
delight, as though the dullest lead were gold…

Show me a love where two minds meet as one
sweet appetite by word and language fed,
a heat to melt a frozen land locked tear,
swell hearts with hope upon a hemlocked bed

Why then I should say, that Romeo lives, breathes
that Juliet sleeps,
perchance
one day,
to dream…