Poem Analysis: Robert Kelly's Love Songs

Love Song 1

Robert Kelly

The grunion
are coming

it is complex
& predictable

they arrive
connected with the moon

men
who have lived longer
run to capture it

this subtle sort of thing that
doesnt happen every night. I'm

not interested. Everything I care for
happens all the time.

Love Song 2

It's the way you walk
& if you dont like
that it's the way you
talk. Or any other

ordinary thing that
rimes with the ordinary sun.
This is my best deal:
yourself exactly as you are

or anything at all the way it is.

Robert Kelly’s poems, “Love Song I” and “Love Song II”, are both beautiful poems that are also short and sweet. The first poem, describing how Kelly appreciates everything in life rather than the men who only want the one thing (alluding to sex), is straightforward and clear. I also likes how he states how they are connected to the moon—to me, it brings up the image of the werewolf, or some sort of night creature looking for a meal. In the second poem, Kelly describes to a woman how everything that about her is beautiful—if its not the way she talks, then it’s the way she walks. It’s something I think every couple can relate to, since some partners in relationships take on the ugly girl persona (grateful to be in a relationship), but end up clouding the persona of their real selves (truly beautiful).