Love Is Not Love (After Shakespeare's Sonnet 116) Poem by Richard G Berg

Laughter is not laughter
When laughter cannot have fun
If laughing is with some pain fraught

Art is not art
When nine tenths photo-copies greyness off by heart
Success is a success
For those whose measure
Is treasure and treasure this
Alone

Spring is not spring
When stuck on the M25's stagnant ring
In a blustery May of winter's sting
Politics shall not be politics
Which alters when it alteration finds

Acting is not acting
If actors re-enact themselves
In parts of every kind
A week weakens as a week
When growing is removed at removal's peak

Love is not love when love is not loved
Fatally
I swear that I never writ
Death is not death
When death has already repeated itself


Richard G Berg
April 2024