Sonnets for Ashley Faye: Sonnet 1

This sonnet has been published online by the Society of Classical Poets. It was the first sonnet I ever wrote for my wife, Ashley Faye Harris.

I’ve awed at the Atlantic’s bluest depths,

and peered at the Pacific’s deepest blues;

the warm blue summer waters of Key West,

and cold blue winter on the Charles, too.

I’ve watched the moon rise up above the Thames,

the stars upon a Minnesota lake;

I’ve seen the morning sun reflected in

the misty sweep of San Francisco Bay.

But nowhere in the world have I seen blue,

and nowhere have I seen the shimmering sky,

come close to matching what I’ve seen in you

when something lights a smile in those blue eyes.

As if an ocean hides beneath your face,
as if a heaven shines behind your gaze.