While modern literary types seem to be suspicious of expressions of honest human emotion, including love, all the great poets wrote love poems, sometimes even "gushy" ones!
Well, it’s definitely going to appear in 2025. There will be a period of multiple months in between the ending of Issue I and the beginning of Issue II. I am hoping to start Issue II in either the spring or the summer of 2025 (preferably the spring).
I think I've said before how much I love reading your poetry. My favorite has been and continues to be your love poems. I can breathe them in. Thank you, Michael.
It was my boyhood reading of the great poets that inspired me to become a poet, especially Blake, Burns, cummings, Dickinson, Frost, Housman, and Yeats.
I think I had good taste in poetry as a boy. I could FEEL the magic in the best poems, and that made me want to see if I could create the same sort of magic. I became an apprentice wizard!
I absolutely adore your love poems, Mike, and you have put together a very fine collection of them here. I greatly enjoyed reading them, and I was tickled pink to see The New Stylus listed as the original publisher for so many of them—even the ones that are slated to appear in future issues. Thank you so much!
It is hard to understand the bias. After all, most of Shakespeare's sonnets are love poems. Sappho was a love poet, and Catullus, and Ovid. We have precedents!
I agree, and besides, since when has reading good love poetry done anyone any harm? I mean, even the Bible contains one of the greatest love poems of all time.
Yes, the Song of Solomon has some marvelous passages. The first great free verse poem in the English language and undoubtedly an inspiration for Walt Whitman.
‘Goddess’ is an absolutely wonderful love poem, full of mystery and transcendence. It feels flawless from start to finish.
Goddess by Michael R. Burch
“What will you conceive in me?”—
I asked her. But she
only smiled.
“Naked, I bore your child
when the wolf wind howled,
when the cold moon scowled…naked, and gladly.”
“What will become of me?”—
I asked her, as she
absently stroked my hand.
Centuries later, I understand;
she whispered—“I Am.”
I'm glad you like "Goddess." It was an honor for "Goddess" to be the first poem in the first issue of Romantics Quarterly.
I agree, Martin. “Goddess is indeed flawless from start to finish. I am looking forward to publishing it in Issue II of The New Stylus.
When can we expect to see Issue II of The New Stylus? Dare we hold our breath?
Well, it’s definitely going to appear in 2025. There will be a period of multiple months in between the ending of Issue I and the beginning of Issue II. I am hoping to start Issue II in either the spring or the summer of 2025 (preferably the spring).
I will pull for the spring, then.
Beautiful
I'm pleased and honored that you think so. Music to a poet's ears!
I think I've said before how much I love reading your poetry. My favorite has been and continues to be your love poems. I can breathe them in. Thank you, Michael.
I'm glad you like my love poems. It helps that I have such a wonderful inspiration in my wife Beth, who has quite a collection and two books!
Yes, I agree. We poets need inspiring (in my case, daily, thank you, Robert) to keep the ball rolling.
Thanks Michael.
It was my boyhood reading of the great poets that inspired me to become a poet, especially Blake, Burns, cummings, Dickinson, Frost, Housman, and Yeats.
You chose well, Michael, very well indeed.
I think I had good taste in poetry as a boy. I could FEEL the magic in the best poems, and that made me want to see if I could create the same sort of magic. I became an apprentice wizard!
It worked, Michael. You found the magic!
I absolutely adore your love poems, Mike, and you have put together a very fine collection of them here. I greatly enjoyed reading them, and I was tickled pink to see The New Stylus listed as the original publisher for so many of them—even the ones that are slated to appear in future issues. Thank you so much!
I'm glad you like my love poems and I'm honored to have The New Stylus as a journal that doesn't discriminate against love!
Thank you so much! So many of the greatest poems of all time are love poems, so the modern-day bias against them is baffling to say the least.
It is hard to understand the bias. After all, most of Shakespeare's sonnets are love poems. Sappho was a love poet, and Catullus, and Ovid. We have precedents!
I agree, and besides, since when has reading good love poetry done anyone any harm? I mean, even the Bible contains one of the greatest love poems of all time.
Yes, the Song of Solomon has some marvelous passages. The first great free verse poem in the English language and undoubtedly an inspiration for Walt Whitman.
I agree. Those who look down their elitist noses at free verse often don’t realize that free verse isn’t quite as new as people tend to believe it is.