What some have called their soul mate or their other half, I have called my Unseen Love.
When I was once young and full of great dreams, my Unseen Love would come to me in my imagination, where we'd sit and hold hands in the warm, moonlit night, beholding the stars and feeling the night's soft breeze. I knew her quite well, even though she existed only in my dreams, and all that was really there beside me was the night's sweet air.
My soul had greater depth in those days of my youth; I aspired to lofty ideals and dreamed dreams that only myself and my Unseen Love could appreciate and share. My connection to the rest of the world and its people was, in comparison, quite shallow and superficial. No one else seemed to see and appreciate what I and my Unseen Love shared together: our passion for discovery and learning, our yearning for truth, our love of the beauties of nature, and our appreciation of the truly exalted and magical things in life that everyone else seemed to miss. We loved great works of art, classical music, and poetry, and, most especially, we loved the music of Bach. The joys of these things made our eyes mist with tears, but the greatest joy, by far, was the joy of our love.
Though split apart from me and existing in some unknown place in time and space, I nevertheless felt very close to her. I knew that somewhere she really existed. Her thoughts were my thoughts, and no amount of time and space could prevent our meeting in both our imaginations and longing for each other's presence in the world of reality.
To have my Unseen Love actually present in the real-life world, to share the same tiny corner of time and space, and to have that vast unfathomable distance that keeps us apart turned into just a few short inches of moonlit air would be an ecstatic joy that my soul could scarcely comprehend, not even imagine.
So I wrote her a poem which I called "To My Unseen Love," a poem that I hope will outlive its author. And maybe somewhere in a future time or in a different place my Unseen Love will happen upon it, and having a mind and soul attuned to my spirit, and thinking thoughts that are the same as mine, she will recognize me from her own imagination. For being split apart from me before birth, she is longing for me as well.
I no longer dream of finding her as I once did. Most of my dreams have crumbled to dust. But in all my life, this was surely my life's greatest dream: being reunited, with my Unseen Love.
What would I say to her if she were standing before me? What words could I say to express how I feel? Perhaps words such as these from Elise's soliloquy in Somewhere in Time:
"The woman of my dreams has almost faded now. The one I have created in my mind. The sort of woman each man dreams of in the deepest and most secret reaches of his heart. I can almost see her now before me. What would I say to her, if she were really here? Forgive me, I have never known this feeling. I've lived without it all my life. Is it any wonder, then, that I failed to recognize you? You, who brought it to me for the first time. Is there any way I can tell you how my life has changed? Any way at all to let you know what sweetness you have given me? There is so much to say. I cannot find the words. Except for these: I love you! Such would I say to her, if she were really here."