Russell Dodson Poet Couplet

My Love In Candlelight

My Love In Candlelight (c) by Russ Dodson 1963, 1985, 2025

The burning candle flickers low 
and in the dancing, darting flame
I see your face and now I know 
what longing is, I call your name.

I know you hear but you won't heed 
my plaintive cry and all the while
my heart cries out it's greatest need, 
you do not speak, you only smile.

This isn't real, you can't be here, 
you're with him in some other place!
Yet still I feel your presence near, 
and still I see your lovely face.

Again I say you can't be here! 
I knock the candle to the floor,
but still within the fluttering flame 
I see your face, just as before.

The candle, flickers, dimming, dying,
as it sheds a waxen tear,
could it be that you are crying, 
as if afraid the end is near?

The candle now gives up the fight, 
the feeble flame begins to wane
and then goes out, and I was right,
for with the dark you're gone again.

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Russell Dodson September 27, 2025 at 11:02 PM This was a lost poem I had to reconstruct from memory. After several false starts, I finally nailed it. loose iambic tetrameter