The Preface by Ian:
Aged over seventy and I fell in love, unexpected to say the least. I will never forget the date; 31st October 2014, Halloween! Is that prophetic? More than twelve months have since passed and those feelings haven’t waned, they have intensified. How to celebrate this situation? After some thinking I came up with the following … I like to write, the language of love is poetry, the best love poems are sonnets, therefore I decided to attempt to create a love sonnet. What follows is the outcome of that decision, written for my princess.
Infatuation
You are more precious than any gem to me,
Your smile shines brightly like the stars above,
Yet you quite outshine them as all can see.
You cause my heart to flutter from purest love,
I know I’ll be your slave all my days, uncaring,
When I’m with you my spirits uplift ecstatically.
We’ll romp in the sea together, do silly things, sharing,
We’ll sprinkle stardust with every splash, magically.
As when in my teens, (my first love I still revere),
Deliciously happy am I again, bewitched, truly sincere,
I’ve no shame or guilt, I have no regrets to condemn,
Unconditional love I feel, my pure love is your diadem.
We will hold hands, laugh, have fun and be beguiled,
A special bond I share with you, my sweet grandchild.
© Ian Harry Wells
Ian Wells and I attended Armidale Teachers College in the class of 1961-62 where we learnt how to inspire young people to attain knowledge in the classroom.
Our paths have met again, this time through our love of writing.
Ian lives with his family on the Central Coast of NSW
Hi Anne, I was attracted by your name and period at ATC. I trained 1959/60 and my name was Shirvingtion …rather similar . I live in Chiang Mai ,Thailand and am ageing well in this lovely place .
Hi Pamela, Lovely to hear from you. Did you train at Armidale, too? Let’s keep in touch. I’d love to hear about Thailand, and what brought you there. Thanks for your response.
Grandchildren are so special and your love shines through here like a beacon.
Beautifully stated—-I feel the same way about my four princesses. It captures a special grandparent’s relationship. I will pass it on to my granddaughters.
Burle
Thank you for your comment. I have three biological grandchildren and four fostered ones who are part indigenous. All are like my own. Ian has inspired me.
sounds like a wonderful family, Anne!
Ian Harry Wells was another colleague of mine at Armidale Teachers’ College in the 60s. He wrote the post “A Love Sonnet” as a guest and I posted it on my blog. But our experiences and our more recent families are very similar, it seems. Our grandchildren are precious to both of us, like rare jewels.
Anne,
It should be known that twice I sent you working copies of this sonnet when it was ‘under construction’ and twice you gave great advice and critical support. I very much appreciate your efforts as I do the invitation again to be a guest contributor to your blog.
Thanks Anne,
Write on!
Hi Ian
I think with poetry one needs someone to bounce ideas off. I think the final version was simpler, and therefore better. Yet I still had doubts that I might be wrong, and I’m glad you stuck to your guns about some things. Your ability to express sincere emotions in poetic form is obvious. Keep it up. Your family must be so proud of these lovely emotions.