Today, for the first time.......

[dafydd manton]

Today for the first time.....


Today, I saw your face for the first time.
Oh, I'd seen you from afar,
I knew vaguely,
As if in a mist.
But today... today
My world lit up.
I had expected you to be pretty,
But I had never expected what I saw.
Beauty.
Pure, sheer, heart-stopping Beauty.
The shape - I cannot describe it.
I don't know the words.
There must be some, but
I don't know them.
Your hair, radiant, shining,
Black.
Your skin, flawless,
Like the finest marble,
Yet marble is cold,
Your face not.
I want to touch, caress.
Your mouth. Cupid would be proud.
I want to kiss.
Yearn.
Your eyes.
My special one, your eyes.
They will ever haunt me,
The depth, they way they shine,
The honey warmth.
Today, I saw your face for the first time.
My heart skipped a beat,
And I fell.

[Delta40]

you are a romantic and you I love they way you pen these verses Daydd.

[dafydd manton]

Thanks Delta, appreciate the comment. It always helps when it's a real experience, which this was, and recent, which it also was. Special people help!!

[Maryd.]

Dear Dafydd, this one blows me away... Speechless sir, just beautiful.

[Jerrybaldy]

Is this about my posting my pic yesterday Daffy ???? :auto:
seriously mate is an honest slice of love. writing of not being able to find the words particularly.
'Matron. He is doing the good serious poetry again and the seriously good poetry. Shall I pull his moustache?'

[dafydd manton]

Thanks, Jerry, Mary, Delta. It's peeps like you that make it that much easier.

[Maryd.]

Is this about my posting my pic yesterday Daffy ???? :auto:
seriously mate is an honest slice of love. writing of not being able to find the words particularly.
'Matron. He is doing the good serious poetry again and the seriously good poetry. Shall I pull his moustache?'

Jerry... Is there something you are not telling us?...:smilewinkgrin:

[Bar22do]

Daf, it's disarming! ageless love, silk beautiful, but does it need to lead to - as the final lines suggest - a heart attack??? (this ambiguous "falling" - though I know you meant: "... in love" - is my only reservation for this otherwise touching first-sight-love poem!)

You're such an openly emotional dear creature! Thank you.

Bar

[dafydd manton]

Daf, it's disarming! ageless love, silk beautiful, but does it need to lead to - as the final lines suggest - a heart attack??? (this ambiguous "falling" - though I know you meant: "... in love" - is my only reservation for this otherwise touching first-sight-love poem!)

You're such an openly emotional dear creature! Thank you.

Bar

Well, Bar, to be honest, when this happened , I very nearly DID have a heart-attack, but I thought it best to just leave it as "falling". That left various options such as falling for her, falling in love, falling in to those beautiful eyes, any of those, so I left it open. Thanks for the suggestion, though, I always appreciate it. I just...well....fell! Haven't stopped, yet.....

[Maryd.]

Picks her dear friend up...

[Scheherazade]

Well, Bar, to be honest, when this happened , I very nearly DID have a heart-attack, but I thought it best to just leave it as "falling". That left various options such as falling for her, falling in love, falling in to those beautiful eyes, any of those, so I left it open. Thanks for the suggestion, though, I always appreciate it. I just...well....fell! Haven't stopped, yet....."Fall" on its own almost always reminds me of the fall of man (i.e., Adam and Eve's fall from the grace because of the original sin).

[Delta40]

Is this about my posting my pic yesterday Daffy ???? :auto:
seriously mate is an honest slice of love. writing of not being able to find the words particularly.
'

lmao! I mean, I really am trying to take Dafydd's more tender verses seriously and then you come out with this!

[dafydd manton]

Oh dear - Original Sin. Not quite so far advanced, I hope! No, I saw someone today, and I was astounded at her incredible, classical beauty. Takes 55 years.............!

[Delta40]

and just think, you're a step closer to meeting another beauty too! isn't life exciting

[Jerrybaldy]

'Matron, he is being enigmatic and esoteric again'

[dafydd manton]

and just think, you're a step closer to meeting another beauty too! isn't life exciting

Eh? Wha'? Parding? Whom meanest thou?

[dafydd manton]

I don't wish to bore you all, but 24 hours later, and the image is still there, burned in to my psyche. *Swoons*. I genuninely do not think I have ever been so .....Oh, can anybody find the word for me, please? My mind seems to have gone soft. Hawk, Bar, Hill, you great wordsmiths, help!

[hillwalker]

You sound bewitched, man..... does this fair lady know how she has captured your heart? Perhaps you should write her a poem and slip it inside her pension book (ahem).

But seriously, a beautiful poem (if only she knew she would be equally entranced I'm sure).

[Hawkman]

Sorry old fruit, I can't do love poems, they either come out funny or wet! Anyway, I'm not privy to your vision :D

[dafydd manton]

I quite like the poetry idea, although, believe me, this lady is not ready for the old age pension yet, bay a long way! Just astounding that I can't get it out of my head......as the song said. Truth to tell, I don't want to, either! Just a bit odd feeling like a kid again.

[Hawkman]

As we age we like to gaze
At all the bright young things
And wonder how delightful
Our appreciation rings.
In ears of youthful beauty,
Is it lechery or duty,
To adore what is adorable
And feel a little fruity?

[dafydd manton]

Aptly put, Sir, although there isn't a hint of lust, and anyway she isn't one of yer actual flighty young things with no character. Lechery? My dear chap, a gentleman doesn't. So it might be as well that I'm not a genteman! No, Hawk, I have genuinely never seen a face like it, and, well, me flabber is gasted. Well and truly.

[Scheherazade]

Oh dear - Original Sin. Not quite so far advanced, I hope! No, I saw someone today, and I was astounded at her incredible, classical beauty. Oh, is this about someone you saw yesterday? I thought it was about your feelings when you met your wife (Ann?).

[dafydd manton]

No, it was only yesterday, hence the bit about being no lust or lechery involved. Just the most astounding face..........

Come on, Scher, how do you know Ann's name?? Fess up!

[Scheherazade]

Come on, Scher, how do you know Ann's name?? Fess up!Well, that'll be our little secret... No, wait! That'll be my little secret!

:smilewinkgrin:

[dafydd manton]

Mind games I don't like!

[Hawkman]

To me Daf, anyone under 40 is a bright young thing :D

To be honest I find your description in the poem to be a little incoherent. I catch glimpses of this vision but they are mostly obscured by your reaction to her. (I assume it's a her :D ) this isn't a criticism as such, the poem, as it is, is very effective and conveys your emotions/reaction admirably. But I do not see the cause. If you want the reader to see her then you must paint her portrait in words, as well as give an impression of her presence. But do you want the reder to see her, or do you want to keep that just for you?

Best, H

[Maryd.]

Games... I thought this was poetry...

[dafydd manton]

Bit deep for me, Hawk. If I had the skill to describe her, I would, but regrettably I haven't. I don't even know why I wrote it, to be candid. To express the emotion and sense of shock I suppose. Seems to have stirred up quite a hornet's nest, especially with regard to the two comments above, about which I am less than happy.

Mary, there are people on here who obviously know something about me, but haven't admitted how, or who they are, and it is very, very unsettling!

[Maryd.]

Sorry Dafydd... Will those people please stand forward and explain themselves!!!

[Hawkman]

Actually I'm appauled that personal information about a forum member should be publicly displayed on the forum without individual consent. It shows a radical lack of judgement and sense, as well as raising the question of how it was obtained.

[Maryd.]

Hear hear Hawkman... This is why I don't reveal certain info... Nobody should be subject to that. Nobody!

[Scheherazade]

I'm sure those rush to post accusations will be ready to post their apologies in a similar haste too.

I only know Dafydd's wife name because he mentioned somewhere on the Forum that she liked to spell it as "Ann" instead of "Anne".

Should I stop reading others' posts so carefully?

[Maryd.]

Well at least you are perceptive...

[Scheherazade]

Well at least you are perceptive...Care to elaborate on that, please, Mary?

[Maryd.]

Just that you have a good memory... I didn't notice the post and even if I did, it probably would have slipped my mind... Mine being so slippery as it is. It would have slid right out, with the butterflies.

[Bar22do]

I quite like the poetry idea, although, believe me, this lady is not ready for the old age pension yet, bay a long way! Just astounding that I can't get it out of my head......as the song said. Truth to tell, I don't want to, either! Just a bit odd feeling like a kid again.

O Daf, How could I find the right word, except that I see no reason why you should get her out of your head, or feel 'adult'! or any "why" whatever. Let her become a part of your most precious experiences, those that illumine your days and spread your wings wide open!
But I thought, Daf, when re-reading your song, of J.Joyce's astounding "Araby" I read ages ago and have now unburied to copy a fragment for you (don't be troubled, I type as fast as the thought goes!). It's, in my memory, one of the most touching descriptions of -- falling for her, in love, or whatever you choose, so here it goes, hopefully to your liking:

"... and, if she remained, we left our shadow and walked up to Mangan's steps resignedly. She was waiting for us, her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door. Her brother always teased her before he obeyed, and I stood by the railings looking at her. Her dress swung as she moved her body, and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side.
Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books and followed her. I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her. This happened morning after morning. I had never spoken to her except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.
Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance. On Saturday evenings when my aunt went marketing I had to go to carry some of the parcels. We walked through the flaring streets, jostled by drunken men and bargaining women, amid the curses of labourers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys who stood on guard by the barrels of pigs' cheeks, the nasal chanting of street-singers, who sang a come-all-you about O'Donovan Rossa, or a ballad about the troubles in our native land. The noises converged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom. I thought little of the future. I did not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.
One evening I went into the back drawing-room in which the priest had died. It was a dark rainy evening and there was no sound in the house. Through one of the broken panes I heard the rain impinge upon the earth, the fine incessant needles of water playing in the sodden beds. Some distant lamp or lighted window gleamed below me. I was thankful that I could see so little. All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: 'O love' O love!' many times." J. Joice, Dubliners/Araby.

Here we have a special blessing upon witnessing Beauty. Cherish what your feeling sculptures in your soul's substance... and be blessed. Bar

[Maryd.]

Oh Bar, this is a beautiful piece. Wow... I'm speechless.

[PrinceMyshkin]

No sin that I can see in this fall, although the original ine is sometimes called "the fortunate fall" inasmuch as through it we have come to understand the reality and the consequences of free will.

This is beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful.

[Haunted]

A fine piece Dafy. I noticed you capitalized Beauty.

[dafydd manton]

OK Troops, panic's over, I had indeed mentioned how Ann spells her name, which I had clean forgotten. Scher - you have a superb memory. That issue is now put to bed, rather than rambling on for ages. Least said, soonset mended. And thanks to Scher for her prompt reply. Much appreciated.

Bar: thanks so much for that piece of Joyce. Sums up exactly what I felt.

Prince: praise indeed, I was trying to match her beauty. I didn't, but I had a good try.

Haunted. You noticed! Thank you - it was no coincidence.

Can I stop being so soppy now, and paranoid? In other words, keep my images to myself!

And thank all of you!!

[Haunted]

who's Ann? I'm a bit late for the party....

[Bar22do]

I understand it's only about how one spells this name: Ann, Anne, A... etc... Daf gets back into his shell, together with his great images. What a pity.

[dafydd manton]

who's Ann? I'm a bit late for the party....

Panic not, H! My Better Half. Just a touch of confusion, all settled now!

[Haunted]

Dafy may actually know Ann as well as Anne, then it'll be two lucky ladies

[dafydd manton]

I understand it's only about how one spells this name: Ann, Anne, A... etc... Daf gets back into his shell, together with his great images. What a pity.



In the best traditon of Hawkman's dragons, I shall return - sooner than you think!

[Bar22do]

a divinely inspired promise! take it with awe!