Love Letters 2: Alchemist

I’ll keep this short because I’m on holiday with family; this collection is proving the hardest to write. I thought practising writing sonnets would have made the process easier. But it’s not the process that’s hard with my Love Letters collection, it’s the sentiment.

Each sonnet in this collection is a letter to someone I love, or have loved. Each one has to be sincere, appropriate, true.

‘Alchemist’ is about my twentieth attempt to write a poetic letter to the intended recipient. It contains the essence of some earlier versions, but is largely distinct.

It contains fewer linguistic techniques. It’s simpler. That’s because earlier versions with hyperbole, grand metaphors and fantastical allusions felt false. This sonnet feels true.

That will be my litmus test for this series. Art should be true: love should be true.

Alchemist

My love for you ain’t easy to describe
It’s a potion both potent and complex
Whose concoction no scientist could scribe
Yet blows my mind with its profound effects.
Ways that I’ve loved you I have had to change –
Stop-motion memories (a treasured store)
That pushy Time has forced me to exchange
For nostalgia that swells my chest yet more.
Those moments in my heart’s vessel are mixed
With admiration for who you are now
A character of virtues, firmly fixed
Who rich furrows in life will surely plough
       You’ve mixed this past, present and future list
       And made you gold, you’re your own alchemist.