The Princess with Starry Eyes

Princess, with eyes where the starlight gleams,
What secret light awakens in your dreams?
Deep in the quiet chambers of my heart,
Your painted image never fades apart.

Like moonlight resting on a silent sea,
Your distant image keeps returning to me;
A beautiful mystery I cannot disguise,
A world of wonder hidden in your eyes.

Did you stitch the veil that conceals your face,
To hide from the world your tender grace?
Was it woven from memories of pain,
From broken trust and promises made in vain?

Then let me weave you a scarf of silken light,
From threads of affection, tender and bright;
With love for its warp and compassion its thread,
To comfort the dreams your wounded heart has shed.

Not to hide your beauty from the world outside,
Nor claim the heart you have chosen to hide;
But simply to shelter, if love ever can,
The fragile soul beneath the veil you began.

For if your picture can leave me this way,
Breathless and lost in its beautiful sway,
What would become of me, should we ever meet?
Perhaps love would make the earth fall from my feet.

Perhaps in the rush of that wonderful sight,
My heart would surrender its last bit of flight;
And overcome by the beauty I see,
I might fall to earth, forgetting even me.

The poems that you write with such quiet pain
Are more than the echoes of love lost again;
They are silent aches that your verses conceal,
The hidden wounds only a lonely heart feels.

They speak of a woman abandoned alone,
Of love that was given, then suddenly gone;
Of tears that were hidden beneath a composed face,
And a heart left behind in a desolate place.

If someone turned away and left you alone,
Then surely he never deserved what you'd shown;
For anyone blind to a heart such as yours
Could never have known what true tenderness pours.

Yet why can you not see the love that I hold,
A love that seeks your happiness, never control?
I wish for your joy, not possession of you-
That is the only desire I have ever held true.

Or did my affection escape from your sight?
Did it lose its way somewhere into the night?
Or did I simply fail, in my own silent way,
To tell you the love I was too shy to say?

Perhaps you have learned from the wounds of the past
That every beautiful promise will never last;
That love is a mask with betrayal beneath,
A beautiful lie that conceals sharpened teeth.

But were we not fashioned by God's loving hand,
With hearts made for mercy throughout every land?
Were we not given compassion and love,
As reflections of grace from the heavens above?

Is love not a sign of the God we adore,
A light that can heal what was wounded before?
If kindness and mercy were gifts from above,
Then surely the purest of gifts must be love.

I will never wear masks to win your trust,
Nor cover false motives with promises unjust;
I will not pretend to love you just to be near,
For honest affection has nothing to fear.

Your silent pictures seem softly to say,
“Trust no one; they'll hurt you and leave you one day.”
And every such whisper brings sorrow to me,
For I hear the old wounds behind what I see.

But who told you the finest of men are disguise,
That every kind heart has a wolf in its eyes?
Must every good soul be a deceiver in flight?
Must every warm heart conceal darkness from sight?

Am I not, too, made from the earth and the clay,
A child of the God who gave life to the day?
Was I not given a heart that can feel,
That can offer compassion, and comfort, and heal?

Perhaps you don't understand the language I speak,
Perhaps all my words leave your heart still opaque;
But words are not always the language of love-
Some truths live more deeply than language thereof.

For there is a language no dictionary knows,
A language that silently rises and flows;
It speaks through patience, through kindness, through pain,
Like soft drops of mercy that fall in the rain.

And one day, perhaps, when your heart has grown still,
When time has softened the wounds that once kill,
You may finally hear what my silence has said,
And understand why I stayed when others had fled.

You will know I never came seeking to hurt,
Nor wished to disturb what your silence had kept;
I came only to sit by your sorrow awhile,
And offer you peace with a quiet smile.

Not to claim your hand, nor possess your heart,
Nor ask you for promises right from the start;
But simply to stand where your silence can see,
And love you from afar, if that's all you need.

So let me love you from a distance, dear,
With no tests to complete, no promises to fear;
Let me remain like a star in the night,
Too far to possess, yet still wishing you light.

Let me be like a lamp beside your lonely road,
Offering warmth when you carry your load;
Asking for nothing from those passing by,
Just quietly shining beneath your dark sky.

And if you never turn your beautiful gaze
Toward the quiet love that has followed your days,
I will not call that love something I lost-
For loving you freely was worth every cost.

But somewhere within me, a hope still remains,
Like sunlight that waits beyond winter's rains;
That someday, not words, but my heart will call,
And you will understand the meaning of it all.

You will know this was never a passing desire,
Nor a fleeting illusion, nor momentary fire;
It was a quiet prayer my soul chose to keep,
A love that remained even while you slept.

And perhaps, on some beautiful, unexpected day,
When fear has finally loosened its hold and away,
You may look beyond all the sorrow you've known,
And see that my heart has been waiting alone.

Perhaps then you will understand what I knew-
That love need not possess to remain true;
That sometimes the purest love one can give
Is simply to love, and let another live.

So, princess with starry eyes, hidden from view,
Let me remain quietly faithful to you;
No chains, no demands, no claim on your heart-
Only a love that grows stronger apart.

And if one day your wounded heart learns to believe,
If you find there is still something good to receive,
Perhaps you will discover, beneath all your scars,
That I was simply loving you from afar.

I never asked you to promise me forever,
Nor bind your heart to mine by any endeavor;
I only wished that, through the love I could give,
You might learn once again that it is beautiful to live.

And if someday your heart should answer to mine,
I will know that our meeting was written in time;
Not a dream, not a fancy, not some passing flame-
But two wounded hearts recognizing the same.

Until then, my beloved, keep your beautiful veil,
Keep every mystery your silence may tell;
I will honor your distance, your freedom, your way,
And love you with kindness, whatever you say.

For I do not wish to conquer or own you,
Nor make you believe what you cannot yet do;
I only hope that, through all that I've shown,
You may someday feel that you are not alone.

And perhaps that is all my heart wants to say:
I will never force your fears away;
I'll simply remain, like a star in the night,
Loving you softly, and wishing you light.

For maybe the greatest love I could ever impart
Is not winning your love, but healing your heart;
Not asking you to belong to me,
But helping you believe in love once again-
and letting you be free.