Precious Essence
My Beloved,
what shall I compare you to?
A mountain stream, running through snows of ivory?
A water lily, waving in a pond of tinted green?
A wild doe, dancing in a meadow of spring?
A proud mare, racing through African deserts of gold?
Faint comparisons,
shadows of reality,
wordless beauty!
Tibetan snows tell of your purity.
Ocean depths reveal your richness.
Falling rains speak of your freshness.
Bubbling fountains declare your joy.
O my loved one!
How can I continue to recite
these metaphors of thought…
When I behold you,
my world explodes like shattered stained glass.
In your presence the night shadows race away.
The morning dawns like textured crystal in candlelight.
When I behold you,
you become the precious essence of love to my eyes.
May it always be so, my beloved,
always so…
G.D. Williams has worked in Adventist higher education for 30+ years and is happily counting down to retirement. This poem was written in his junior year of high school and first appeared in an anthology collection entitled Whispers in the Wind, published in 1993. His other pursuits include photography, genealogy, collecting antique books, and working on his old farmhouse.
