A casual smile belied those tender eyes
An off-hand touch that lingered for a little while

Inside a warmth that simulates a pain
To reacquaint the heart with love again

Your voice indifferent in its subtle guise
Brings back the buds of soft and sweet surprise

Long Beach

Under the dusky arch of falling night
The blackness blurring the line between sea and sand
A sudden roar envelopes the land
Swallowing selfishly - Encompassing all.
Phantom lights blink softly against the velvet sky
Racked by waves, the shore breathes, pulsates
Two insignificant shadows stand in awe.

THE LAKE

In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide earth a spot
The which I could not love the less --
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that tower'd around.

But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by
Murmuring in melody --
Then -- ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.

Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight --
A feeling not the jewelled mine
Could teach or bribe me to define --
Nor Love -- although the Love were thine.

Death was in that poisonous wave,
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imagining --
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake.

-Edgar Allan Poe

Publishing

Publishing