Gregory Richard Barden Poet Free verse

Notes About The Poem

would you, still?

would …

you still love me ...
perchance I was half a man?
my carnal, physical core blasted from
me like ragged raiment
off to war in courage and heroic sacrifice
returned by God and country as
barely half of what I'd been -
the half that could never
again join with you in passion or
appease your bodily desires …
would you still love me?

imagine …
I was a monster -
deformed by happenstance or accident
still a man in the technical sense
but with face and sinews that
repulsed even me
and frightened children away
though the heart and spirit you adored
still thrummed earnestly inside -
still beat with love and desire and
careful intensity ...
would you still love me?

what …
if the day came -
(a stark reality as viable as any)
when I lost all of earthly value and worth -
all possessions and comforts
all conveniences and financial securities - gone
the talents and experience and innate
ability to support even myself
blown to the four winds by
careless fate or folly ...
would you still love me?

consider …
I’m human, but
turned completely inside-out -
the abyssal and dark, troubled corners
of my innermost being
worn on hapless bones like sodden skin
the fearful ids and psyches thus
laid bare by illness, time or substance -
free to dance like a demon for
the porcelain moon ...
would you still love me?

and pray …
what if I were YOU ...
and you were the reflection of all that
your dreams dared to weave
the horror and ecstasy that awakens
you sweaty in the night -
that shivers and turns to ice on your
fair, faultless, barren skin
terror choking the screams from
the tight of your chest
could you ...
would you, still …

love me??





~ POETRY AGAINST POVERTY ~

( photographic art created copyright-free by the author with Gemini AI / Meta AI software )

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Alison A Smith September 30, 2026 at 1:25 AM A powerful free-verse meditation on conditional love, built through a sequence of escalating, intimate hypotheticals. The recurring question—“would you still love me?”—acts like a refrain, giving the poem a haunting structural pulse while allowing each stanza to expose a different kind of vulnerability: bodily loss, disfigurement, poverty, psychological darkness, and finally the unsettling reversal of self and beloved. The movement from physical wounds to inner terror is especially effective. Its imagery is stark and memorable—“ragged raiment,” “sodden skin,” and “the porcelain moon” create a gothic, almost surreal atmosphere that deepens the emotional stakes. The fractured spacing and ellipses mirror hesitation, dread, and the speaker’s need to keep asking what may be impossible to answer. The final turn, asking the beloved to inhabit the speaker’s nightmare, gives the poem its sharpest emotional resonance.

Ink Empress September 30, 2026 at 12:02 AM This is so soulfully moving. When I usually hear the words " I still love you " I just pause and think to myself ~ despite what? Your poem flows in such an earnest manner and the flow of lines is so very evocative. I love the ending and also how youv written " what if I were YOU ... and you were the reflection of all that your dreams dared to weave" that hits really deep. Its always a pleasure reading you on soup You are one of the finest poets A fave this is Sending you light always ~