EDITOR’S NOTE: Fritz Crytzer moved to Georgia in 2016 after having lived all around the country, including Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where he was born and raised, as well as 11 years in Germany. He graduated from the University of Texas in 1974, with a BA in Economics, and spent the next 30 years as a civilian logistics advisor for the U.S. Army. He began his poetry endeavors one night in a Heidelberg, Germany Gasthaus, enjoying a good German bier, in 1984. He says he’s always enjoyed the beauty of poetic words and has been associated with several writing groups around the U.S., in North Carolina, Mississippi, and now Georgia. This poem offers his reflections on the topic of love.
THE COLORS OF LOVE
A hateful love is black as Hell,
Its theme is greed and lust.
As razored thorns in forest dell,
It wounds at faintest touch.
A verdant love is Nature’s own,
Her natural pulse of life.
Where stag and doe beget the fawn
And man his strain makes rife.
A jealous love is gossamer gray,
And sewn with threads of doubt.
Its choking veil of taut dismay
Shrouds Aphrodite’s house.
A sensual love is passioned pink,
A mutually savoring fire.
Its ardent music rings distinct
And accents one’s desire.
A midnight blue is love forlorn,
Bestowed but not returned.
On anguished lips a plea is borne,
Indifferently it’s spurned.
A sentient love’s as red as wine,
A vintage strong and rare.
With soft bouquet it seasons time
And tastes of sweetened care.
The moods of love distinctly hued
Are painted here in verse.
On poet’s canvas love is viewed
As notions quite diverse.
But fantasies in tones contrived
Obscure love’s verity.
For love is all, no shade denied,
Tis painful ecstasy.
-FRITZ CRYTZER