During my alone time 

I have had many lovers:

Among them the mountains,

The streamside, the sea. 

There were many surprise meetings 

And gentle moments, 

Joyous pleasures and 

Soft reverie with someone special. 

But always, always 

There was the gracious love 

Of the One who created 

The beauty that surrounds me,
The One who knows me best. 

So that all in all, I know 

That truly, truly I am loved. 
Thank you for calling me your Beloved.

Sensuous

I think of the marvelous shiny smoothness of my car

after bathing and buffing to polished splendor,

The smell of fresh-turned earth when I’ve spent a day in the garden,

The "song" of the frogs on the evening

before a cold front invades their watery community,

The poised neatness of the stack of papers

for the project – completed at last,

The melting taste of meatloaf served in the kitchen by someone in love,

The sensuous movement of a pet,

The radiant face of the person

receiving the bouquet the giver smelled on the sly.

Ol’ Noah (the lexicographer, not the one with the sailing zoo)

was right when he wrote that sensuous

is a word meaning "pertaining to the senses."

 

find favorites in the glorious multiplicity of gifts

and joys that please the senses:

A bunch of late summer wild flowers or a gift

from the garden – or road-side stand –

A walk in the woods, or the country, or on the seashore,

or in the mountains or even in the neighborhood

Provides a wealth of surprises and delights:

The neighbor’s new delphinium,

The tiny red bits on a woodland moss in full "bloom,"

A mockingbird singing its joi de vivre to the sky,

A curious cow protecting her stringy calf,

The endless roar of the ocean,

The feel of the wind in my hair,

The cool retreat into shelter,

The ecstasy of an eternity of time

on a cliff overlooking darkening beauty –

What better gifts than these?

 

Children understand simple sensuousness.

They revel in the mystery of a shampoo’s lather

on their dirty scalp; 
They will spend hours watching a caterpillar

go about its business in the neighbor’s tree;

They listen for the changing sound of a passing train;

They savor the delight of ice cream on a summer day;

They are alert to the smell of the ozone before a thunderstorm.

 

When I come through the sensuous door,

I become like a little child and share in their delights.

I enjoy being with people who enjoy weather:

Not just "good weather" but each

of the numerous kinds of weather: misty rain, violent storms,

gusty winds, quiet twilight, clear brightness, and on and on.

 

I like to lie in the grass and watch the trees blow,

Wash someone else’s hair – then dive into the lake for a rinse.

Get thoroughly wet outdoors,

Pick up a pretty stone in a stream.

Ahh. Delight!

Anyone who ignores the sensuous side of my nature

does so at his own peril.

 

I began as a child picking up dropped blossoms in the spring

and radiant leaves in the autumn.

I have two maple leaves mottled with scarlet and gold

pegged to my desk wall right now.

I remember the violently beautiful day I found them last October.

February is not long enough for all the Valentines

I have to give and receive, but I find heart-shaped

"Valentines" everywhere I go, month after month:

A brilliant crimson leaf in the fall;

A smooth, white, rounded stone

from the stream I visit on holidays;

A crooked tree limb appearing to meet the shore of a lake –

just beside the cut of a tiny stream.

The world is full of Valentines, and I enjoy them all!

What I Want  ó ¦

"A Sunday Morning Reverie"

by Mary Carol Lewis

What I want is the desire, expressed in positive ways, 
  to include me in your life.

What I am looking for is an interest in me as a person.

What I seek is your desire for increased understanding of 
the wonders of the person that you are and your behavior 
that reflects that vision of your strength.

What I wait for is a positive invitation into your life – not just through a tiny peephole, but a conscious, physical and emotional revelation and sharing. I wait for you to feel comfortable about sharing who you are with me so we can dance in the daylight.

What I wonder about is the ways that you can bring joy and peace and delight and pleasure into my life, and I am alert for your choices in presenting these gifts.

What I need from you is an open heart, 
joyous in receiving all the love I have to give.

What you will discover: You must win me. 
Let me hear your strength and joy. Tell me how you feel – 
with poetry (yours or someone else’s), gifts, surprises, whatever.

Would you like to scale the walls 
and share this adventure called life with me? 
I wait for you.

 

Brother of the Earth

When we walk together in the open wood –

our feet sifting through the crisp leaves,

bright mushrooms, and unexpected blossoms –

We create a space as we walk and discuss many things.

Our talk goes on for hours – literal, spiritual, emotional, sexual,

physical, intellectual, social.

We speak at times and we listen at times,

But always we attend to that other voice:

the voice of the small creatures flying or singing near us.

We stop our conversation and listen to theirs.

We watch their smallest movement for a time,

my body pressed against your arm as I steady the binoculars.

You tell me the names of the ones I have not met,

And I interpret their language to you.

We take a space, then walk and talk again.

We enjoy the magnificent vision of the sun

setting in muted glory behind the dark trees

that shelter the gray lake.

We turn and begin our homeward journey.

And on that journey you provide from your goodness for me,

And I provide from my goodness for you.

You find the wrongs and right them:

You mend this and fix that and suggest the other.

Where there is concern, you are there

to lead the way to peace.

I prepare a repast that fills you and warms you

and delights you in its own way.

I cradle your foot in my hands, and – listening to its soft voice –

I coax it back to health.

We work together, we two, and form a partnership in provision.

There are times apart

and during those times

anxiety smothers growth

like ice crystals during a late winter storm.

Fear sometimes grows like a weed vine in the meadow:

threatening, circling, choking the young plants

that seek the sunlight of love.

Present and past abandonment, possible future abandonment, dishonesty,

lack of clarity, lack of control, losses,

enmeshment, powerlessness, helplessness, hopelessness –

all come crowding each other in their effort to

overcome the innocent heart.

Hope, power, love, purpose, strength, wisdom, 
decision, perception, choice –

each floods the soul and battles the fears

that have attempted residence in our being.

And at last peace returns to the meadow.

– Mary Carol Lewis

from Season of Lovers: Discover the Joy of Your Sensual Self

Season of Lovers is available at this Singles Network web site, from www.Amazon.com and from the publisher at PO Box 13, Springfield, VA 22150. It is also available at www.BookSurge.com, where additional information about the book and its author is available.

Retail price for Season of Lovers is $12.00, but the book may be purchased at this web site for $10.00 (plus $3.00 for postage and handling for one to three books). If you want to know more about the book, read the information published at Amazon.com and the Books and Tapes page of this web site, or contact the publisher.

Earth’s Comfort

Excerpts from Season of Lovers: Discover the joy of developing your sensual self from the verbal and visual images of Mary Carol Lewis.
 This paperback book can be purchased at this web site or from www.Amazon.com  

Spring Flowering

Bonnie Stephens
LPTS Box 23
1044 Alta Vista Rd., Louisville, KY 40205
email: talk2bonnie at network4singles.com
Copyright © 2004 Network 4 Singles/Allegro Multimedia
All Rights Reserved
Webmaster: A. Harms