Love Song Competition Poetry Co-Winner: “A Winter Love Poem” by James G. Piatt

“Peace, my heart, let the time for 

parting be sweet. Let it not be 

death but completeness. 

Let love melt into memory 

and pain into songs.”

Rabindranath Tagore

Winter sneaked up on us this past 
year, warning us that our time was 
near. And, as a clock struck the late 
hour of the night, we tried to pause 
the hours, from vanishing before 
daylight We were thankful we had 
time for holding hands, time to 
watch the moon’s face rising in the 
lowlands, time to watch stars 
sparkling in the sky, and time to 
remember the passage of our 
lives gone by. 

As we held each other under the 
wintery sky, we watched stars 
leaving messages in a lullaby. I 
asked my love to put her ear on my
 heart so that she would know my 
love did not depart. I told her to 
dream of next year’s warm summer 
together, even if there might not be 
time to pick warm apples and 
apricots in the balmy weather; or 
plant tomatoes, squash, and 
cucumbers, in our summer gardens; I 
said there would be time for us to 
hold each other until time hardens

James, a nonagenarian, lives in Santa Ynez, California, with his wife Sandy, and an Aussie dog named Scout. He has published five collections of poetry; The Silent Pond, Ancient Rhythms, LIGHT, Solace Between the Lines, and Serenity, and over 1845 individual poems, five novels, and forty short stories in hundreds of national and international literary publications. He is a twice Best of Net nominee and four times a Pushcart nominee. He earned his doctorate from BYU, and his BS and MA from California State Polytechnic University, SLO.