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MY LOVE, MY CALIFORNIA
A Love Poem from my Youth
by Ken Jaccard

Oh, sweet Joy of my youth, I hunger for thee,
What is this longing deep inside of me?
Is it life and the bloom of youth that beckons me?
Or does my heart drift to heights unknown?

I look to sunshine gleaming from your smile,
Your eyes are bright with joys to give,
I wonder in a land of blissful longing,
Never finding it, but always seeking it to discover.

The magic of a longed-for caress,
Lifts me to the heights of satisfaction...
My heart finds hope in dark despair,
and waits for you so, in desperation.

My memory of your pleasant smile,
like wisps of jasmine and gardenias,
Lifts my soul to heights of anticipation,
And never leaves me barren and alone.

What is this fantasy, this joy that's fleeting?
Is it my youth, whispering once more to me?
Can I find it there within your longed-for embrace?
Or must I travail alone here in this wretched longing?

Your smile is like a pleasant balm,
that renews my life, so bereft of what you gave...
Can I find the rays of sunshine in your smile?
Must I seek the rest of my days in this longing?

I could close my eyes, and dream pleasant dreams..
Of your coasts, the pounding of the waves...
Your beaches, your surf renews my life,
And makes me come alive again.

Oh, sweet Joy of my youth, I long for thee,
This longing deep inside of me is you!
It is life and the bloom of youth that beckons me..
My heart drifts to thee, my love, my California!

And yes, your hair is the fragrance of jasmine,
Your breasts, your snow capped mountains gleaming,
Your smile, the rays of perpetual sunshine,
Your Joy, your hope - the Gardenias and Forsythias, which beckons...

Your coast, like a lover, lies near, so near...
Your mountains, stand majestic, proud and tall,
Your orange groves, breathing of a life renewed,
The Eucalyptus and Acacia, so pungent, stirs my soul...

What is this fantasy, that beckons me?
Can it be but a dream, or a soulful longing?
Or is it real, a world I just need to rediscover,
Waiting for me and calling me to close my eyes...

And dream the dreams of seamen and traveler...
An island in the seas of wanting...
This dream, my California, is stirring me, I'm waking...
To find that I am alive; and to discover that I have finally come Home.

I hear a song sung sweetly in my youth...
Of a place so perfectly satisfying to me and happy...
When air was clear, and oceans clean and bright...
Sung of a land the Indians and Spaniards called home...

My Love, My California, she beckons to me...
Like a lover, soft and gentle, and caressing...
A wondrous Land of Plenty, so blissful and satisfying...
Biding me to find in her embrace, that same song of my youth...

"I love you California, you're the greatest state of all!
I love you in the Winter, Summer, Spring and in the Fall.
I love your fertile valleys, your snow capped mountains, I adore...
I love your gentle breezes that caress your sun kissed shore." *

words of California State Song slightly altered to fit my poem - read Info below.

by Ken Jaccard
Copyright October 6, 1996
Revised August 28, 2006
All Rights Reserved
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* "I love you California" - California State Song, a song we all learned to sing in my 3rd and 4th Grade class at Lincoln Elementary School in La Crescental, California, 1953

The California State Song, "I Love You, California", was written by Francis Bernard Silverwood (1863-1924), a Los Angeles clothier, merchant and businessman, in 1913. The music was composed by Abraham Franklin Frankenstein (1873-1934), then conductor of the Orpheum Theatre Orchestra. The production was published by Hatch and Loveland, Music Printers, Los Angeles, California, and copyrighted by F.B. Silverwood in 1913.