February 2024

This poem, perfect for the month of love, is the seventh sonnet in Alexander’s collection In A Time of Distance. In his introduction, Alexander writes ‘The conclusion in the final two lines of the following poem is that we will never get another to love us by revealing to the one we love that we are miserable without him or her. That never works. Even trees prefer to have two doves than one.’

VII. Love Unforgotten

When I felt lonely I would go around

Lost in a crowd of those I did not know,

Hoping to hear the once familiar sound,

The voice of one who claimed to love me so;

But listened in vain just as I listen still,

For you to utter, to evoke my name,

Knowing the ear’s a trickster and often will

Contrive to make other people sound the same;

You needed do no more than write to me,

You needed do no more than make a call;

Writing costs nothing, email’s almost free,

My sorrow, though, I think counts not at all.

An injured heart does not engender love,

No sheltering tree will want a single dove.

______________________

In A Time of Distance is available now. Order your copy here.