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[Rupert Brooke: War Poet courtesy dVerse Poets Pub]

 Without  Fantasies,

These i have loved:

The quiet dark anticipating dawn,

Unfolding in layers of whistles and songs of sky birds,

Dare of the tropical mockingbird that skips across my wall,

The shadows of banana leaves in upcoming light,

Without the fantasies,

They are just banana fronds dancing with the wind,

Radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;

And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,

Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon

The stark white of plumerias against this background of clearing  new day,

The coolness envelops my backyard,

Where a chair lay tumbled,

Maybe from a sprinting cat or maybe a strong gust,

Ah! day breaks:

 The cloud palette is yellow, misty yellow.

All these have been my loves.

© gillena cox 2026

Note: The bold lines are from the second stanza of ‘The Great Lover’ by Rupert Brooke

Blog Hopping Today With

 Poetics: The Great Lover 

--read lines from the second stanza of ‘The Great Lover’ and then springboard off one or more to write a list poem that begins with ‘These I have loved’, details things that the speaker of the poem has loved and ends with ‘All these have been my loves’.

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