7.12.2007

The longest one

I have been working on this poem today. It is still unfinished, but I thought it might be nice to get some feedback. It is a love story (Surprise!)

Your name has reached me
on the sea-salt winds --
it has entwined itself in my bosom
& stretched deep into my heart
building up a little tower
a stronghold
and, pushing into my blood,
grows roots
with every breath of my body.
You and I
we walked together
along the sun-bronzed shore
and down the muddied lane --
staining our feet with the landscape.
We would meander through the paved
and cobbled streets
where the baker's scent found us
in the goldenrod afternoon
and we pulled apart his sweet bread
with sticky fingers
to taste its flesh upon our mouths.
Do you remember those soporific days, my love?
Do you remember stopping
in that alley to let
time slow,
just a step,
that we might kiss
under the amber light of dawn?
I remember.
I cannot forget.
I recall the night I sped to your open arms
when the glow of your lamplight shone
through your window
and the shock of your touch sent me reeling.
How, with meteor and steel
your comet searing lips made their way
through those unnamed corridors
of oblivion
and I tensed at its burning.
Then I mapped the coastline
and gave special care to your wild places,
breathing in your wheat and honey skin,
expanding your name in my bosom
and navigating through the sea of your eyes,
floating and sinking, living in them,
living on them and their sustenance.
In the Spring,
in the Spring
our outcropping of a life will grow
and our love with it,
so that, when we share the fire
you will sleep in my shadow and keep warm.
In the cold and harsh times
when life is but a dormant memory,
when the eucalyptus ceases its growth
we will go on.
It will be so because your name is on
the sharp Northern wind
and it rakes away the lonely leaves
and gives us strength
to create anew.
It is in these times, my love,
when we will see with honest eyes
and the scent of jasmine and youth
will cause our smiling.
In the dancing shadows of windy Winter,
when your naked silhouette shivers
in the mist
these arms will cover you;
they will cover your perfect breasts,
they will massage away the fear
gripping Spring tightly in both hands
and pulling firmly on the sun
so that the tapestry of my skin will calm your
fragile form.
Then, my love, we will
go walking as before.
And again the roses and junipers,
the ash and pines,
rocks and mountains --
they will say a name,
an unknown and lovely sound,
for it is our Love-Name;
it will be written
on the humped-backs of the waves
roiling forth toward the earth,
and in the stardust
and the moonlight.
The wind will whisper it
in a long-forgotten tongue
so that we will be tied to creation
even as I am tied to you.

2 comments:

aziner said...

I enjoy this piece. You really use your words to paint your vision for the reader. My one critique is in the repetition of some words. You use "bosom" twice in the first half of the poem. Now it is a great word, but it's also not a word used that often, so I think it loses a bit of its uniqueness by showing up twice here. Plus it is clear from the beginning of the poem that the subject's name has taken root within the depths of the narrator, not only in his bosom but in his heart, blood & breath. It doesn't really seem that her name can expand any further in his bosom; it must expand somewhere else in him.

I think your repetition of the word wind is fine as I don't feel any of its synonyms would be stronger.

Love and name (including variations) are used 6 times each. Was this intentional as the last time each is used is in the compound "Love-Name?" If so, then I can't really argue with that level of intentionality. If not, you may consider other possible words to use in some of these places.

these arms will cover you;
they will cover your perfect breasts,

Is there a stronger word you could use for one of these covers?

Those were the main things that stuck out to me. Here are a couple of my favorite lines:

where the baker's scent found us
in the goldenrod afternoon
and we pulled apart his sweet bread
with sticky fingers
to taste its flesh upon our mouths.


In the dancing shadows of windy Winter,
when your naked silhouette shivers


The wind will whisper it
in a long-forgotten tongue
so that we will be tied to creation
even as I am tied to you.


Also definite props for use of the word "soporific." :)

Keith said...

Wow, thanks for the critique. On the whole Love-Name thing, yes it was pretty intentional. As for the expansion, I think your comments are worthy of my ear and I will look further into it. The same goes for "covering."

I'm glad you like the poem as a whole -- I did only write it in the span of 45 minutes, so that could lend itself to the repetition. At any rate, I'm pretty excited about this piece, esp. since this is only the first manifestation of it. Expect more to come later.