Night
For Lovers on Valentine's Day
I feel I should add a note here…
In one sense, this poem needs no explanation. Sensual poetry, erotic poetry, speaks for itself and has done since ancient times.
Love takes many forms and it whispers to each of us, and emanates from us, each in our own way. Desire and physicality are just two aspects of love - of greater or lesser importance depending on the context and the person.
Sex can be fun - a wonderful kind of play - and sex for fun alone has its own poetry, but this poem is about desire and physicality and the fusion of both with something greater - the transcendence of individuality where “I” and “you” begin to lose meaning and something which seems time limited - a physical act - will change you permanently. You are no longer just locked within yourself. A doorway has opened.
I wrote this for M, long ago now, but it remains as true today as it did then. I share this with her permission because it is about us both, but we are also both incurable romantics and we hope - we are certain, really - that we are not alone.
This one is for the Lovers, of any genders or combinations, though written - of course - for the woman I love….
Night
how many ways are there to talk about this?
there was darkness,
but all the luminous light of your touch
such that it made me see.
there was the warmth inside as I entered you,
finding the still point
I could not find inside my own existence.
there was a sense
in which the wide walls of your body could contain me -
not just the part
with which I filled that one small cavity but more -
the part of me which saw
despite the darkness the long fine line of your back,
and the cleft which held me,
and the bed and the room and the night which held us both.
Truly I lacked nothing
with all and everything you offered me,
but what I recall most
is the look in your eye I could not actually see
as I felt you come
and felt myself becoming almost free...
What a tender and honest poem, Dave. A very happy valentine's day to you and M.
Absolutely stunning. (and blushing)