ENAMORED

ENAMORED

(For Kyle on our 24th year anniversary)

Like a stream in a desert, arid and warm,

Rain cooling the earth with a brisk summer storm,

Grace and beauty flowing, making all things new,

I am enamored, so enamored with you.

Like the dew in the morning that sweetens the grass,

Like a quick gulp of whiskey from a small shot glass.  

Like the well tailored man of great style and class.

You have made me one of your chosen few

And I am enamored, so enamored with you.

As the lifeguard is to a clear blue pool,

Like the student who's loyal to his school,

Like a wise king welcomes the motley fool,

You have kindly welcomed me too,

And I am enamored, so enamored with you.

Like a clown in a circus paving the way,

To a happy, bright, splendiferous day,

Like sunlight is to an arbor,

Like a ship is to a harbor.

Like a lighthouse guides the sailors, ever tried and true

You have gallantly guided me too

And I am enamored, so enamored with you.

Like a town crier with his proclamations

Ending each one with an exclamation,

We have been together now 24 years,

Had quite a few laughs and a smattering of tears,

You are my every mystery and my every clue,

You fill my heart with happiness, as all good lovers do

And I am enamored, so enamored with you. 

 -Bruce Potts

Copyright 2025

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

LEGENDARY

 LEGENDARY

(FOR KYLE ON OUR 22nd ANNIVERSARY)

Another year has come and gone,

Another year we've spent together,

Knocking down the roadblocks,

Enduring stormy weather.

22 years have quickly flown,

For me it's you and you alone,

When life turns crazy scary.

You are nothing short of brilliant,

You, my love, are legendary.

Just like old Paul Bunyan or Johnny Appleseed,

You have farmed the soil and fallow fields 

Of a heart in desperate need.

You're a solid, cool magician,

You excel at sleight of hand,

A kind and caring nursemaid,

Quick to understand.

When the road looms rough and rocky,

When my disease gets cocky,

When I am stone-like stationary,

With nerves of steel, you take the wheel,

You, my love, are legendary.

Like those stellar Wright brothers,

Orville and Wilbur by name,

Bravely you sit in the great cockpit,

As we play life's crazy game.

Just like Curie with her test tubes,

Alan Shepard with the moon,

Klein with all the fragrances 

You use to make me swoon.

Van Gogh with his paintings grand

That marked a starlit sky,

You make me feel invincible,

Convinced that I could fly.

You manage both me and a busy deli,

Leaping through sands of tall demands,

When life's a little chancy,

You indulge my flights of fancy.

Like Ali in the boxing ring, you excel at damn near everything.

Like Lewis and Clark, you have left your mark,

While traversing my lost and lonely heart,

An expedition good and grand.

With calm and clear good wisdom,

You offer up your hand.

Just like a beloved Judy Collins or a feisty Deborah Harry,

You are brave, unstoppable, you, my love, are legendary.

-Bruce Potts

Copyright 2023

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

IN THE LIGHT AND IN THE SHADOWS

IN THE LIGHT AND IN THE SHADOWS

In the light and in the shadows, I can see what's hidden,

What's allowed and what's forbidden,

What is playful, what is dangerous,

What's all the fury, what's all the fuss.

In the shadows of your arms,

There is no cause for alarm,

As you cradle me to your breast,

As I acquiesce to your behest,

As I make my way through the valley of the shadow,

Through the coursing river of my sorrows,

The remaining gusts of tomorrows,

That my soul still must blow through,

In the light and in the shadows,

I will always turn to you.

Like a babe in arms, like a fish still flapping on the deck,

I strive to be a stoic, keep emotions in firm check.

Like a deer in the headlights, I flee the road,

Like most earthly travelers, I believe what I've been sold,

But somehow you are handy with your spirit so uncanny,

When all my trust that still remains lies with the heavens blue,

In the light and in the shadows,

I will always turn to you.

Your goatee brushes Brillo pad across my face,

Your arms reach around my shoulders,

Your love it shows such dependable grace,

Lifting a sorrow heavy as boulders,

With effortless striving you make me new,

I am happy to be sheltered in these covers,

By the ultimate of earthly lovers,

Comforted by the heady wine, all others I eschew,

In the light and in the shadows,

I will always turn to you.

If you need me, only call, and I'll open the door,

Just wait a moment while I limp along

And safely reach the ground floor,

If you need a traveling companion to babysit the hotel room,

Somewhere in my thread of memory, some movement to exhume,

Have wheelchair will travel, here to the moon,

In the light and the shadows,

I will always turn to you.

So travel with me everywhere,

Walk behind to nudge me when i freeze upon the stair,

And count our blessings with me for each day that remains,

Each precious moment that will fall before the final rains,

Before the mud it slides beneath me,

And my footsteps they no longer hold,

When at last my breath deserts me,

My life is not my own.

From now until the bitter end,

When all that's left is you my friend,

Your emotions raw and true,

In the light and in the shadows,

I will always turn to you.

-Bruce Potts

Copyright 2015

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

THE BLESSED ARMS OF YOU

THE BLESSED ARMS OF YOU

I thought I was too young to know
The drumbeat of the marching band,
That leads the way to heaven,
And death, that foreign land.

I thought I was too old to feel,
The thrill of true love ways,
The sweet sound of your sweet voice calling,
To lighten up my days.

For some days I feel ancient,
Like Sisyphus with the boulder on his shoulder,
And some days I feel numbness,
As my world turns slowly colder.

I thought I was too old, alas, to see the world anew,
For my tired old eyes to come alive to the miracle of you.
For to youth, lost time means not a thing, we hardly mourn its passing,
Until we grow enough to know, it's rarely everlasting. 

The muscles they all stiffen and the joints they creak and ache,
And the mind is unforgiving of all my past mistakes.
I thought I was too old for mercy, for someone soft and sweet,
Until the wind it blew me you, landing at my feet.

Now perhaps the groaning grave can wait a year or so,
Or five or ten or twenty, only God in heaven knows.
I thought I was too old to live, too odd, too strange, too blue,
Until your kindness filled the room, an angel weaver at the loom.
And this battered heart once deaf of tone at long last sang in tune.

I thought that I was far too old,
To know the beauty of a song,
Until you came and graced my life,
And in time I sang along.
So if my days are numbered, be they many or a few,
I will live them out in sacred bliss, in the blessed arms of you.

-Bruce Potts
Revised Copyright 2014
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

LOVE'S REAFFIRMATION SAYS

LOVE'S REAFFIRMATION SAYS

(TO KYLE ON OUR 13TH ANNIVERSARY)

Repeat the vows you made to me,
When you first won my heart,
When there were only vaguest rumblings
That our life could come apart.

Reaffirm the electric charge 
With which my heart you plundered,
And what God hath brought together 
Let time not tear asunder.

Love's reaffirmation says,
I am with you for all time,
Without you there's no morning,
No singing birds, no sunshine.

Love's reaffirmation says,
I love the roads we've been,
And down that long and winding path,
I would deign to walk again.

There are times where I feel insecure,
So kindly hear my plea.
I have to say that physically,
I'm half the man I used to be.

I need to know it's me you'd choose
For a romp between the covers,
For life's a tenuous rocky climb,
For even the best of lovers.

Your soul's a clear blue sparkling lake into which I long to dive,
A sweet breath of refreshment that keeps my heart alive.
A charge goes up and down my spine when alas our fingers touch,
And just to share my day with you has grown to mean so much.

Repeat the vows we've just assumed,
Calmly and without hurry.
My heart sometimes becomes subsumed,
Filled with needless worry.

My feelings have no rhyme or reason,
I know our love's no passing season.
Just need to know you'll be there in the summer and the spring,
But most of all in winter, in the sunset of my dreams.

Love's reaffirmation, it takes me by the hand,
Whispers in my timid ears until they understand.
Love's reaffirmation says, 
I am with you for all time,
There will always be a morning,
Replete with birds and sunshine.

Love's reaffirmation says,
That everything worth knowing,
Is in the sunrise in your eyes,
Your graceful spirit glowing.

-Bruce Potts
Copyright 2014
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED