Carl Martin Johnson
Poet, Author, Slayer of Dragons
LOVE SONG Poetry -- "Men and Women in Lust and Love - Poems of Love, Lust, Romance, and Heartbreak"
© Carl Martin Johnson, All rights reserved
THE RIVER
By Carl Martin Johnson
It was the river who led me to you.
Your beauty drove me to the shore.
But when I landed my canoe to pursue you,
You disappeared through some unseen door.
I searched the pueblo on the river’s edge.
I could find not a trace.
The villagers swore a holy pledge
They had never seen your face.
I built a home on the opposite bank.
Believing you would return.
Every night I knelt in prayer to thank
Heaven for letting such love burn.
Years went by and I grew wealthy.
My estancia expanded and flourished.
Yet my obsession with you remained unhealthy,
My sad love endured fully nourished.
I was kept alive by that single factor,
My beard lengthened and grayed.
I was a lonely and tragic actor
On the stage where my life played.
Then, as age was fogging my sight,
You appeared on the bank across.
I leapt into the current in the blackness of night.
For now my life would not be a loss.
Like a figure made of wispy lace,
You led me through the trees.
The gossamer charms of your body and face
Wafting softly in the night’s gently breeze.
Through the village streets I ran,
Desperate for your embrace.
But I was no longer a youthful man;
I knew I would soon lose the race.
You disappeared behind a rise.
When I got there you had vanished.
I saw only desert, graveyard and night skies.
I cried out, abandoned and banished.
My legs grew weak, lost all strength.
I surrendered both body and soul.
Lying over an old grave stretched full length,
I forswore my passionate goal.
I, Rafael Orlanger, man of boundless devotion,
Would no more seek my heart’s only desire.
The cold, deep waters of despair’s ocean
Would quench my hot lover’s fire.
My tears muddied the dirt to mask my cheek
Before I lifted my head to leave.
This chill cemetery, sad and bleak,
Was a fitting place to grieve.
Then I took note of the stone to my front.
I focused on the engraving.
I knew I had reached the end of my hunt.
Found dark satisfaction for my craving.
“Here Rests Catalina Orlander,
And her husband, the good Rafael.
He tried to save her from the river’s anger.
He loved his dear wife very well.”
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TOUCH ME SOFTLY
By Carl Martin Johnson
Touch me softly if you want me.
Let me know of your desire.
Wild thoughts of you will haunt me
‘Til the spark of longing becomes fire.
I lie waiting here beside you,
My body ready to join yours.
If you’re timid, the dark will hide you.
All shyness loving cures.
Graze your fingers ‘cross my lips
When you need my warm affection.
Fondle gently with their tips.
Make me slave to your direction.
Whisper words across my chest,
Delicate phrases of your need.
With my flesh against yours pressed,
I will follow where you lead.
Let me feel your tingling,
Electric current down my spine.
All our senses mingling,
I’m only holding for your sign.
Leave me waiting not too long.
Take pity on my yearning.
Let us sing our lovers’ song,
And set our passion burning.
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LEAVING
By Carl Martin Johnson
I touched my lips softly to your own,
Afraid that I might wake you.
I heard your dreamy moan,
And felt strong need to take you.
But I held my urge in check.
If you saw me leaving, you would cry.
I breathed the aroma of your woman’s neck,
Sorry to be parting in a lie.
I must go and I must fight.
It is for you, though you don’t see.
You will be proud I did what’s right.
Still, you’ll be angry for a time with me.
I will return when it is done,
When the battles are all through,
When good over evil has won,
When the world is safe for you.
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COLORING MY DREAMS
By Carl Martin Johnson
The past slips quietly into my dreams,
Guiding old pleasures, old pains.
A kaleidoscope of red, blue and green.
Memory’s rainbow after life’s rain.
A private reality grows inside me,
One only I can see.
Sweet sleep covers all, and will hide me,
Give me a taste of eternity.
A fine thing, this world that nightly I make.
In a small way I know how God feels.
Though it ends each morning when I wake.
It is worth it for the wounds that it heals.
And the lover I continuously fashion
From all the world’s beauty that’s sung,
Her face nightly I kiss with soft passion.
Her lips I trace with my tongue.
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HUNGER
By Carl Martin Johnson
Rip the shirt from off my chest.
Sink your teeth in deep.
We have no time to rest.
This bed is not for sleep.
I will take you like a beast.
You will scream, but not with pain.
We will dine a lover’s feast.
Let our carnal desires reign.
Writhe with me in heat,
Our animal passions slake,
‘Til our mating is complete,
Our bodies full awake.
Rake your nails until I bleed.
Make me move and make me bite,
I will satisfy your need.
We will lose our souls tonight.
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HER LOOK
By Carl Martin Johnson
She gave me a look as I passed by,
Cast briefly over her shoulder,
From the corner of her eye,
An invitation to be much bolder.
There was a lifetime in that glance,
A life we might have shared.
She could have been my great romance,
The one who truly cared.
But I was shy and let her go,
Great coward that I be.
Now, it seems, I’ll never know
What she could have meant to me.
Our love may have been one of fame…
Romeo and Juliet…
It was I let die the flame…
So we are lovers who never met.
On days like this I’ll see that look,
What her eyes said to me.
How my heart trembled and shook
At what can no longer be.
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SOFT LOVING
By Carl Martin Johnson
Your breath’s gentle scent
Whispers soft across my face.
It came quickly, and quickly went
At a tantalizing pace.
Your lips hover above my skin,
Not touching, yet exciting.
A hint of coming sin
With the passion you’re inviting.
Like a dragonfly skimming light
Over the surface of a lake,
Your fingers swift in flight,
Sending every sense awake.
You slide your body over mine,
In electric feather’s touch.
A sensation near divine.
I long for you so much.
Our love will be complete,
Before flesh can consummate it.
Our souls will perform the feat,
While our bodies yet await it.
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IN YOUR EYES
By Carl Martin Johnson
I looked into your eyes tonight
To see how you perceived me.
The image that came into sight
Hurt, and sorely grieved me.
The bold and brave I tried to act
Had near escaped your view.
Instead, I saw you felt I lacked
Many virtues, to speak true.
I looked again, and focused hard
To see if there was more,
But now your thoughts seemed barred
Your mind had locked the door.
I forced myself to try again
To give your heart a shove.
It worked, and when I looked within,
What I saw was Love.
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HIM OR ME?
By Carl Martin Johnson
Are they my lips you feel excite you
When he puts his on your skin?
My tongue or his that invite you
To writhe in loving sin?
When his breath runs down your spine,
While you on your stomach lay,
Do you imagine it is mine?
Do your thoughts of me betray?
When his fingers your passions inflame,
Are you recalling my caress?
Do you want to call my name?
Your desire for me confess?
As your ardor is consummated
Is it my sweat that you taste?
Do you wish that you had waited?
Did you marry him in haste?
Every night, then, think of me,
When you lie naked with him in bed.
Think what your night would be
If it were me with you instead.
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HAVE YOU SEEN MY LOVE’S HEART?
By Carl Martin Johnson
Have you seen my love’s heart?
There’s a hole where it had been.
Did it hide, did it depart?
Shall I look again?
She had promised it to me,
Forever mine to keep.
Did my darling set it free
When I was asleep?
I heard she has retrieved it
To give another man.
I would never have believed it
When our love began.
I know it’s not inside,
Or she could not be so cold,
Unless it froze and died,
Like a once-bright star grown old.
If one day you hear its beat,
Please tell me right away.
My life can’t be complete
Until it’s back to stay.
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MY MOUTH WILL SERVE AND PRAISE YOU
By Carl Martin Johnson
My mouth alone will touch you
It alone will graze your skin.
Only my mouth will clutch you,
And create pleasure in our sin.
My tongue, moist with your sweet dew,
Will trail softly down your spine.
Hills and valleys will delight anew.
All of you is mine.
My teeth will nibble at delicate places,
Releasing your body’s trapped sensations,
Leaving glowing erotic traces,
And bursts of sensual celebrations.
Your throat will be a highway for my lips,
Climbing up to mount your own,
Before moving down where honey drips,
Bringing passion before unknown.
All of your love I’ll taste.
You will be my willing feast.
Not a morsel will I waste,
As we feed love’s rabid beast.
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HELPLESS
By Carl Martin Johnson
You may never be mine,
But I’ll never let you go.
You are the tempting fruit on passion’s vine
Whose ripening I’ve watched grow.
We are both claimed by others,
Not free to share a name.
Storms of infidelity some love smothers.
With us it fans the flame.
I walk past you in the morning.
We dare not risk a smile,
For fear it may give warning
To others of our guile.
Sometimes I will turn
To watch you walk away.
You must feel my heart yearn
For the hour when you can stay.
At night we lie alone.
Though there is someone at our side,
Who cannot hear our sad heart moan
For the love we are denied.
We fall together in our dreams,
Making love ‘til we awake.
Then we make our secret schemes,
So lustful pleasure we can take.
Helpless we both feel
In the prison of our fate.
Our love is strong and real,
But it came to us too late.
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BAYOU NIGHT
By Carl Martin Johnson
I’ve seen phantasms gliding past
My pireaux late at night.
Causing my heart to freeze fast
At the cursed, unholy sight.
I’ve heard sounds as I ran my fish line
That were neither animal nor man.
Eerie, haunting spirit whine
Like ice through my veins ran.
Now the moon melts through the moss
Hung like dead hair from the cypress trees.
I say an Ave, reaching for my lost cross.
I feel demons in the breeze.
A moonshadow slaps my face
From a winged thing in the air.
Some evil creature without grace,
Brought forth from Satan’s lair.
Behind me a panther screams,
If a panther the beast be.
I am praying la lune’s beams
Do not give a glimpse of me.
Across the bayou she emerges,
As she always does this hour.
I cannot flee, despite my urges.
I watch Lucifer’s magnolia flower.
Her alabaster gown flows luminous around her.
Her lovely face bloodless and pale.
Swarms of red-eyed dragonflies surround her,
As the world begins to wail.
Her ice eyes bore into me.
They set my soul aflame.
I know the pain is due to me
For my great sin and shame.
God! Deliver me from this bayou!
Here agony and horror thrive.
Here I killed the only love I knew,
When I was still alive.
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THE CURVE OF HER BACK
By Carl Martin Johnson
She sprawls her loveliness over the sheet,
Unclothed and unashamed,
Giving off erotic heat
Like a wild thing yet untamed.
Moonlight rolls like fresh cream over her hips,
Smooth alabaster mounds.
Softly caressed by my fingertips,
Calling forth her cat-like sounds.
Shadows deepen, gray to black,
Accenting her ripe charms.
The graceful curve of her soft back
Lures me willing into her arms.
How can she not sense my eyes’ touch,
Sweeping over all that she lays bare?
Knowing I want her, oh so much,
With passion hot and rare.
But, for now, I lie content,
Beholding her beauty in the night,
Letting my lust for her ferment
‘Til she wakes to morning light.
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HUNTING FOR LOVE
By Carl Martin Johnson
I sailed out on Life’s cold sea,
With the white bright moon above me
Embarking on an odyssey
To find someone who’ll love me.
I searched the stars above my head,
Hoping they would guide me.
I found that I would be misled
Unless the Way came from inside me.
Many long years I wandered,
Following my heart.
Now I see the time was squandered,
Only a false start.
Oh, there was many a kiss.
Some led even to romance.
But never more than this,
Though I enjoyed the dance.
Once more I looked within.
This time not to heart, but mind.
I knew I must try again
To see what I could find.
I saw the Gardens where love grew.
Each human soul a vine.
Some were healthy, green, and true.
Some were dry like mine.
Selflessness was what I needed
To make my love vine flower.
It was knowledge I quickly heeded.
And quickly felt the power.
Now a lover waits for me.
She will not be hard to find.
And she will adore me,
If only I am kind.
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DESIRE
By Carl Martin Johnson
My loins are aflame.
My heart a glowing coal.
My soul cries your name.
Only with you am I whole.
So, let me love you.
Let me quench Eros’ fire.
No comet above you
Burns with hotter desire.
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