Romantic Poems from Real Life

I was at a party, unconnected, and deploying my usual tactics to avoid detection: Avoid standing still too much and, at intermittent intervals, move over to another part of room so it looks like you've just spotted someone. On this particular May 16th, they didn't work. A fellow Page Dude called me out:

"Langill," he said "what are you doing just standing there? That girl is sitting there by herself. Go over and talk to her. Impress her"

She was sitting, and looked like she was thinking about something, so I walked up and said

"Cheer up, life is too short to be taken seriously."

The rest of the story isn't history, it is poetry. "Cheer up" is the first line of "Hello" , the first First Love poem in Simple Feelings & Deep Passions. It is exactly what the first thing I said to her. The rest of "Hello" isn't strictly verbatim, but is very close to what I said and thought the night I introduced myself to Kathie.

Simple Feelings & Deep Passions is a poetry collection, one that tells a story. It's the story of what happens in a real romance. Kathie and I are people, not characters in a story. We've shared the giddy rush of first love, and the power and touch of intimate passion. We've also shared the "just stuff" moments that happen when people are together: some goofy, some nasty, some painful, and some that are special because of all the times we've spent together.

I wrote some poetry before I met Kathie. I still write poems occasionally, about a variety of subjects. Simple Feelings is the only poetry collection I've ever put together, and, most likely, will be the only one I ever put together. Nothing else in my life provides that much inspiration.