Incremental Poetry ~ 79 Lines

From Beginning to End

From the moment I met you, I wanted to be
your devoted companion on life’s troubled sea.

It was you who at first came to aid in my need,
as you gave me new hope, on your knees to intercede
‘til at last from the prison of shame I was freed.

Over time you began to exhibit your trust,
and you patiently waited for me, for I must
also learn how to open my heart and adjust
to allowing another to audit my dust.

In an effort to help each forget and forgive,
We together contrived a unique curative;
and I soon learned that you were imaginative:
for you taught me both how to receive and to give
in a manner both concrete and figurative.

And you never once uttered a profanity,
though you made the occasional inanity,
and I laughed ‘til I’d let go of all vanity
while inside me I knew gone was my sanity.
Quite apparent in both was our humanity,
yet we did not forget Christianity.

I remember the time when I caused you to fear,
for we could not connect, and you thought it quite queer
that my phone went unanswered. Did I disappear?
When at last I responded and made all things clear,
then your grief was assuaged, my regret full sincere.
Still, you promised to treat me with trial severe.
Wow! I never before knew you held me so dear!

For a moment you left me in my solitude
to consider my actions and how I’d been rude.
Not wanting to take it to decrepitude,
You returned at the end of a brief interlude
and performed with such careful yet deep fortitude.
You persisted ’til I had improved attitude
and could honestly say so with true gratitude.

Now I sit at my table and memories recite
of the wonderful days which I cannot unwrite
from my mind, and I wouldn’t if ever I might.
All the times that in love you would grant oversight
for the things that I did to your anger incite.
Then, in darkness you dealt; but someday, in the light….
and I pray that our Father will soon expedite
perfect plans of His making to us reunite.
Until then, we go on, bid each other good-night.

Every day, every week, every year that ensues,
every time I awake from an afternoon snooze,
it is you on my mind, for I willingly choose
to remember your face, in your eyes to peruse.
There I see in your eyes, through the faintest of clues,
the desire to fulfill, and the longing to lose
the disguise that envelopes and shadows our ruse.
How I long, from the mountains, to shout our good news!

Every chance that we got to converse face to face,
how I hoped it would end with a tender embrace;
and at times, that it did! Time will never erase
all the joy that I felt when we two shared one space.
But we cautioned ourselves not to ever outpace
the dear One who someday will extend His great grace
upon us with a bond that no man can unlace.

Greater joy has none known than through self-discipline,
to refrain from indulging in secretive sin.
When at last we are wed, face aglow with a grin,
unashamed, we will view each the other in skin.
I will travel the span of your frame masculine;
with your finger you’ll trace all my curves feminine.

I have always believed it was you who gave more;
I am ever attempting to even the score.
You say I fill your void; you’re what I’m searching for.
When at last we encounter that blest open door,
all the love I’ve been saving, on you I will pour.

While we patiently wait to declare the “I do,”
we have solemnly sworn to our Lord to be true.
Though our times of togetherness yet are but few,
you are fixed on my heart like a handprint tattoo.

You’re the point of my message, the thought in my head;
until now truest feelings continue unsaid,
but I pray I won’t have to convey them to bed.

Se agapó, my dear one, I love you, my friend—
From alpha to omega, beginning to end.

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Copyright © 2021 Abigail Gronway – All Rights Reserved

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Welcome to my series, Incremental Poetry, where each week the featured poem will be one line longer than the one I share the week before. I have no idea how long I’ll keep this up, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Thank you for stopping by.

Scansion:
Reversed Monometric

Invented by Walter E. Ferguson III, a.k.a. Thunderspeech on AllPoetry.com
Begin with a couplet.
Augment each succeeding stanza by one line until you reach the maximum number of lines desired.
When ready, diminish each succeeding stanza by one line.
End with a couplet.
Each stanza should be an independent monorhyme.
Lines should be written in a consistent meter, but the particular meter is at the poet’s discretion.

This poem is written in anapestic tetrameter.
The final stanza first appeared as the opening two lines of “Se agapó (Σε αγαπώ),” which I wrote September 27, 2017. In that poem, the speaker was God, but this time the message is from one person to another.