Poems15 06-07

tie your heart at night to mine, love by pablo neruda

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tie your heart at night to mine, love, and both will defeat the darkness like twin drums beating in the forest against the heavy wall of wet leaves. night crossing: black coal of dream that cuts the thread of earthly orbs with the punctuality of a headlong train that pulls cold stone and shadow endlessly. love, because of it, tie me to a purer movement, to the grip on life that beats in your breast, with the wings of a submerged swan, so that our dream might reply to the sky's questioning stars with one key, one door closed to shadow. ============================================ ode to a naked beauty s by pablo neruda with chaste heart, and pure eyes i celebrate you, my beauty, restraining my blood so that the line surges and follows your contour, and you bed yourself in my verse, as in woodland, or wave-spume: earth's perfume, sea's music. nakedly beautiful, whether it is your feet, arching at a primal touch of sound or breeze, or your ears, tiny spiral shells from the splendour of america's oceans. your breasts also, of equal fullness, overflowing with the living light and, yes, winged your eyelids of silken corn that disclose or enclose the deep twin landscapes of your eyes. the line of your back separating you falls away into paler regions then surges to the smooth hemispheres

of an apple, and goes splitting your loveliness into two pillars of burnt gold, pure alabaster, to be lost in the twin clusters of your feet, from which, once more, lifts and takes fire the double tree of your symmetry: flower of fire, open circle of candles, swollen fruit raised over the meeting of earth and ocean. your body - from what substances agate, quartz, ears of wheat, did it flow, was it gathered, rising like bread in the warmth, and signalling hills silvered, valleys of a single petal, sweetnesses of velvet depth, until the pure, fine, form of woman thickened and rested there? it is not so much light that falls over the world extended by your body its suffocating snow, as brightness, pouring itself out of you, as if you were burning inside. under your skin the moon is alive. =========================================== happiest s by george sterling (1869-1926) calling you now, not for your flesh i call, nor for the mad, long raptures of the night and passion in its beauty and its might, when the ecstatic bodies rise and fall. i cannot feign: god knows i see it all� the flaming senses, raving with delight, the leopards, swift and terrible and white, within the loins that shudder as they crawl. all that could i exultingly forego, could i but stand, one flash of time, and see your heavenly, entrancing face, and know i stood most blest of all beneath the sun, hearing these words from your fond lips to me: �i love, love you, and love no other one!� ================================================ flame s by george sterling (1869-1926) thou

art that madness of supreme desire,

which lacking, beauty is but dross and clay. within thy veins is all the fire of day and all the stars divinity of fire. thine are the lips and loins that never tire, and thine the bliss that makes my soul dismay. upon thy breast what god at midnight lay, to make thy flesh the music of his lyre? ah! such alone should know thy loveliness! ah! such alone should know thy full caress, o goddess of intolerable delight! i beg of fate the guerdon and the grace, far beyond death, to know in thine embrace eternal rapture in eternal night. ================================================ a moment of happiness s by mewlana jalaluddin rumi (1207-1273) a moment of happiness, you and i sitting on the verandah, apparently two, but one in soul, you and i. we feel the flowing water of life here, you and i, with the garden's beauty and the birds singing. the stars will be watching us, and we will show them what it is to be a thin crescent moon. you and i unselfed, will be together, indifferent to idle speculation, you and i. the parrots of heaven will be cracking sugar as we laugh together, you and i. in one form upon this earth, and in another form in a timeless sweet land. ============================================ you and i s by henry alford (1810-1871) my hand is lonely for your clasping, dear; my ear is tired waiting for your call. i want your strength to help, your laugh to cheer; heart, soul and senses need you, one and all. i droop without your full, frank sympathy; we ought to be together - you and i; we want each other so, to comprehend the dream, the hope, things planned, or seen, or wrought. companion, comforter and guide and friend, as much as love asks love, does thought ask thought. life is so short, so fast the lone hours fly, we ought to be together, you and i. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------impromptu. to kate carol s by edgar allan poe when from your gems of thought i turn to those pure orbs, your heart to learn, i scarce know which to prize most high? the bright i-dea, or the bright dear-eye. _______________________________________

invitation to return by jean froissart

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return, my love; too long thy stay; sorrow for thee my soul has stung; my spirit calls thee ev'ry day, return my love, thou stay'st too long. for nothing, wanting thee, consoles, or can console till thou art nigh: return, my love, thou stay'st too long, and grief is mine till thou be by. ----------------------------------------------------------------------unity s by alfred noyes (1880-1958) i. heart of my heart, the world is young; love lies hidden in every rose! every song that the skylark sung once, we thought, must come to a close: now we know the spirit of song, song that is merged in the chant of the whole, hand in hand as we wander along, what should we doubt of the years that roll? ii. heart of my heart, we cannot die! love triumphant in flower and tree, every life that laughs at the sky tells us nothing can cease to be: one, we are one with the song to-day, one with the clover that scents the world, one with the unknown, far away, one with the stars, when earth grows old. iii. heart of my heart, we are one with the wind, one with the clouds that are whirled o'er the lea, one in many, o broken and blind, one as the waves are at one with the sea! ay! when life seems scattered apart, darkens, ends as a tale that is told, one, we are one, o heart of my heart, one, still one, while the world grows old. --------------------------------------------------------------------------epilogue s by alfred noyes (1880-1958) carol, every violet has heaven for a looking-glass! every little valley lies under many-clouded skies; every little cottage stands

girt about with boundless lands. every little glimmering pond claims the mighty shores beyond� shores no seamen ever hailed, seas no ship has ever sailed. all the shores when day is done fade into the setting sun, so the story tries to teach more than can be told in speech. beauty is a fading flower, truth is but a wizard's tower, where a solemn death-bell tolls, and a forest round it rolls. we have come by curious ways to the light that holds the days; we have sought in haunts of fear for that all-enfolding sphere: and lo! it was not far, but near. we have found, o foolish-fond, the shore that has no shore beyond. deep in every heart it lies with its untranscended skies; for what heaven should bend above hearts that own the heaven of love? carol, carol, we have come back to heaven, back to home. ------------------------------------------------------------it is her love that gives me strength s (from ancient egyption text ca. 1500bc to 1000bc) my sister's love is on the far side. the river is between our bodies; the waters are mighty at flood-time, a crocodile waits in the shallows. i enter the water and brave the waves, my heart is strong on the deep; the crocodile seems like a mouse to me, the flood as land to my feet. it is her love that gives me strength, it makes a water-spell for me; i gaze at my heart's desire, as she stands facing me! my sister has come, my heart exults, my arms spread out to embrace her; my heart bounds in its place, like the red fish in its pond. o night, be mine forever, now that my queen has come! ---------------------------------------------------------------two nights s by ella wheeler wilcox (1850-1919) (suggested by the lives of napoleon and josephine)

i one night was full of rapture and delight� of reunited arms and swooning kisses, and all the unnamed and unnumbered blisses which fond souls find in love of love at night. heart beat with heart, with twining arms that to cling still closer; these truths for which

and each clung into each did but loose their hold and fond glances told there is no uttered speech.

there was sweet laughter and made broken by the kiss that and cooing sounds as of dear that in spring-time love and

endearing words, could not wait, little birds woo and mate.

and languid sighs that breathed of love's content and all too soon this night of rapture went. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------if-- s by ella wheeler wilcox (1850-1919) if i were a raindrop, and you were a leaf, i would burst from the cloud above you and lie on your breast in a rapture of rest, and love you, love you, love you. if i were a brown bee, and you were a rose, i would fly to you, love, nor miss you; i would sip and sip from your nectared lip, and kiss you, kiss you, kiss you. if i were a doe, dear, and you were a brook, ah, what would i do then, think you? i would kneel by the bank, in the grasses dank, and drink you, drink you, drink you. --------------------------------------------------------------------held in sure arms s by hagiwara sakutaro like a reed that sways with every breeze, my heart is feeble; it cowers in constant fear. dear woman, with your beautiful, dauntless right arm, hold this body tight, i beg you. and gently soothe this shudder-causing mind's affliction. and plain hold me, wind your arms around me, press your shoulder flush next to mine, then place on my feeble heart, that sweet warm hand of yours. o, put your hand here next to my heart, dear woman. and say to me now, in your tear-muffled, kind-spoken words, "now, now, sweet child,

don't you fear a thing. you're fit, you're fine, no matter what threatens your heart, don't be frightened. just stare far out at the distance, that's all. mind you, not an eyeblink, lest your timid heart fly off like a dove. stand firm, ever at my side. and take my heart which has vigor to spare, and take these hands that attract you, and this chest, and these arms, and hold on tight to this undaunted bosom." -------------------------------------------------------------------song s by edward shanks (1892-1953) as i lay in the early sun, stretched in the grass, i thought upon my true love, my dear love, who has my heart for ever, who is my happiness when we meet, my sorrow when we sever. she is all fire when i do burn, gentle when i moody turn, brave when i am sad and heavy and all laughter when i am merry. and so i lay and dreamed and dreamed and dreamed, and so the day wheeled on, while all the birds with thoughts like mine were singing to the sun. -------------------------------------------------------------------------to mary s by samuel lover (1797-1868) as in the calmest day the pine-tree gives a soft low murmur to the wooing wind, when other trees are silent�so love lives in the close covert of the loftier mind, responding to the gentlest sigh would wake love's answer, and his magic music make. 'twas thus i woo'd thee�softly and afraid: for no rude breath could win response from thee, mine own retiring, timid, bashful maid; and hence i dedicate the slender tree to dearest memories of the tenting fine i woo'd thee with�as zephyr woos the pine. and hence i love with thee through woods to wander, whose fairy flowers thy slight foot scarcely bends, growing, as time steals o'er us, only fonder, following, mayhap, some streamlet as it tends to a lone lake�full as our hearts, and calm, o'er which the op'ning summer sheds its balm. soft is the breeze;�so soft�the very lake hath not a ripple on its mirror face; and hence, a double beauty doth it make, another forest in its depths we trace,

the sky's repeated in reflected kiss:� so loving hearts can double ev'ry bliss. the sun is high�we seek refreshing shade, beneath the pines we choose a flowery seat; and, while a whisper in their boughs is made, couching, with fondness, at thy tiny feet, i'll whisper thee, while sheltering from the sun� "sweet mary, thus i woo'd thee, thus i won." ------------------------------------------------------------------------they flee from me s by sir thomas wyatt (1503-1542) they flee from me that sometime did me seek with naked foot, stalking in my chamber. i have seen them gentle, tame, and meek, that now are wild and do not remember that sometime they put themself in danger to take bread at my hand; and now they range, busily seeking with a continual change. thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise twenty times better; but once in special, in thin array after a pleasant guise, when her loose gown from her shoulders did fall, and she me caught in her arms long and small; therewithall sweetly did me kiss and softly said, "dear heart, how like you this?" it was no dream: i lay broad waking. but all is turned thorough my gentleness into a strange fashion of forsaking; and i have leave to go of her goodness, and she also, to use newfangleness. but since that i so kindly am served i would fain know what she hath deserved. ---------------------------------------------from a booke of ayres, xvii s by thomas campion then come, sweetest, come, my lips with kisses gracing; here let us harbour all alone, die, die in sweete embracing. ----------------------------------------------julia's petticoat. by robert herrick thy azure robe i did behold as airy as the leaves of gold, which, erring here, and wandring there, pleas'd with transgression ev'rywhere : sometimes 'twould pant, and sigh, and heave, as if to stir it scarce had leave : but, having got it, thereupon 'twould make a brave expansion. and pounc'd with stars it showed to me like a celestial canopy.

sometimes 'twould blaze, and then abate, like to a flame grown moderate : sometimes away 'twould wildly fling, then to thy thighs so closely cling that some conceit did melt me down as lovers fall into a swoon : and all confus'd, i there did lie drown'd in delights, but could not die. that leading cloud i follow'd still, hoping t' have seen of it my fill ; but ah ! i could not : should it move to life eternal, i could love. ----------------------------------------------upon julia's breasts. s by robert herrick display thy breasts, my julia�there let me behold that circummortal purity, between whose glories there my lips i'll lay, ravish'd in that fair via lactea. ----------------------------------------------upon the nipples of julia's breast s by robert herrick have ye beheld (with much delight) a red rose peeping through a white? or else a cherry, double grac'd, within a lily centre plac'd? or ever mark'd the pretty beam a strawberry shows half-drown'd in cream? or seen rich rubies blushing through a pure smooth pearl and orient too? so like to this, nay all the rest, is each neat niplet of her breast. ----------------------------------------------fresh cheese and cream s by robert herrick would ye have fresh cheese and cream? julia's breast can give you them: and, if more, each nipple cries: to your cream here's strawberries. -------------------------------------------unending love s by rabindranath tagore (1861-1941) i seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times� in life after life, in age after age, forever. my spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs, that you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms, in life after life, in age after age, forever. whenever i hear old chronicles of love, its age old pain, its ancient tale of being apart or together. as i stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge, clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time. you become an image of what is remembered forever.

you and i have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount. at the heart of time, love of one for another. we have played along side millions of lovers, shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting, the distressful tears of farewell, old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------at nightfall s by charles hanson towne (1877-1949) i need so much the quiet of your love, after the day's loud strife; i need your calm all other things above, after the stress of life. i crave the haven that in your dear heart lies, after all toil is done; i need the starshine of your heavenly eyes, after the day's great sun! --------------------------------------------departure s by john hall wheelock (1886-1978) the twilight is starred, the dawn has arisen; light breaks from the east and song from her prison. faint odors and sounds the west-wind discloses of laughter and birds, of singing and roses. it is time to be gone � day scatters the gloom; but here at my side, but still in the room, like the angel of life, too kind to depart, you hang at my lips, you hang at my heart! ----------------------------------------love, we�re going home now s by pablo neruda love, we're going home now, where the vines clamber over the trellis: even before you, the summer will arrive, on its honeysuckle feet, in your bedroom. our nomadic kisses wandered over all the world: armenia, dollop of disinterred honey: ceylon, green dove: and the yangtse with its old old patience, dividing the day from the night. and now, dearest, we return, across the crackling sea like two blind birds to their wall,

to their nest in a distant spring: because love cannot always fly without resting, our lives return to the wall, to the rocks of the sea: our kisses head back home where they belong. ---------------------------------------------------------------------la vita nuova s by dante alighieri in that book which is my memory . . . on the first page that is the chapter when i first met you appear the words . . . here begins a new life ----------------------------------------------love in the winds s by richard hovey (1864-1900, when i am standing on a mountain crest, or hold the tiller in the dashing spray, my love of you leaps foaming in my breast, shouts with the winds and sweeps to their foray; my heart bounds with the horses of the sea, and plunges in the wild ride of the night, flaunts in the teeth of tempest the large glee that rides out fate and welcomes gods to fight. ho, love, i laugh aloud for love of you, glad that our love is fellow to rough weather, no fretful orchid hothoused from the dew, but hale and hardy as the highland heather, rejoicing in the wind that stings and thrills, comrade of ocean, playmate of the hills. -----------------------------------------------------------my light thou art s by lord john wilmot (1647-1680 my light thou art, without thy glorious sight my eyes are darkened with eternal night; my love, thou art my way, my life, my light. thou art my way, i wander if thou fly; thou art my light, if hid, how blind am i! thou art my life, if thou withdraw'st i die. thou art my life; if thou but turn away, my life's a thousand deaths. thou art my way; without thee, love, i travel not, but stray. ----------------------------------------------------------------------your feet s by pablo neruda when i cannot look at your face i look at your feet. your feet of arched bone, your hard little feet. i know that they support you,

and that your sweet weight rises upon them. your waist and your breasts, the doubled purple of your nipples, the sockets of your eyes that have just flown away, your wide fruit mouth, your red tresses, my little tower. but i love your feet only because they walked upon the earth and upon the wind and upon the waters, until they found me. ---------------------------------------------------your hands by pablo neruda when your hands leap towards mine, love, what do they bring me in flight? why did they stop at my lips, so suddenly, why do i know them, as if once before, i have touched them, as if, before being, they travelled my forehead, my waist? their smoothness came winging through time, over the sea and the smoke, over the spring, and when you laid your hands on my chest i knew those wings of the gold doves, i knew that clay, and that colour of grain. the years of my life have been roadways of searching, a climbing of stairs, a crossing of reefs. trains hurled me onwards waters recalled me, on the surface of grapes it seemed that i touched you. wood, of a sudden, made contact with you, the almond-tree summoned your hidden smoothness, until both your hands closed on my chest, like a pair of wings ending their flight. ------------------------------------------------------

you and i s by henry alford my hand is lonely for your clasping, dear; my ear is tired waiting for your call. i want your strength to help, your laugh to cheer; heart, soul and senses need you, one and all. i droop without your full, frank sympathy; we ought to be together - you and i; we want each other so, to comprehend the dream, the hope, things planned, or seen, or wrought. companion, comforter and guide and friend, as much as love asks love, does thought ask thought. life is so short, so fast the lone hours fly, we ought to be together, you and i. -----------------------------------------------------------more strong than time s by victor marie hugo since i since i since i and all

have set my lips to your full cup, my sweet, my pallid face between your hands have laid, have known your soul, and all the bloom of it, the perfume rare, now buried in the shade;

since it was given to me to hear on happy while, the words wherein your heart spoke all its mysteries, since i have seen you weep, and since i have seen you smile, your lips upon my lips, and your eyes upon my eyes; since i have known above my forehead glance and gleam, a ray, a single ray, of your star, veiled always, since i have felt the fall, upon my lifetime's stream, of one rose petal plucked from the roses of your days; i now am bold to say to the swift changing hours, pass, pass upon your way, for i grow never old, fleet to the dark abysm with all your fading flowers, one rose that none may pluck, within my heart i hold. your flying wings may smite, but they can never spill the cup fulfilled of love, from which my lips are wet; my heart has far more fire than you can frost to chill, my soul more love than you can make my soul forget. -----------------------------------------------------------------------it is good s by johann wolfgang von goethe in paradise while moonbeams play'd, jehovah found, in slumber deep, adam fast sunk; he gently laid eve near him,�she, too, fell asleep. there lay they now, on earth's fair shrine, god's two most beauteous thoughts divine.� when this he saw, he cried:�'tis good!!! and scarce could move from where he stood. no wonder, that our joy's complete while eye and eye responsive meet,

when this blest thought of rapture moves us� that we're with him who truly loves us, and if he cries:�good, let it be! 'tis so for both, it seems to me. thou'rt clasp'd within these arms of mine, dearest of all god's thoughts divine! ---------------------------------------------------------------------to his maid by frank w harvey (1888-1957 since above time, upon eternity the lovely essence of true loving's set, time shall not triumph over you and me, nor--though we pay his debt -shall death hold mastery. your eyes are bright for ever. your dark hair holds an eternal shade. like a bright sword shall flame the vision of your strange sweet ways, cleaving the years: and even your smallest word lying forgotten with the things that were, shall glow and kindle, burning up the days. ----------------------------------------------------------------------unity by alfred noyes i. heart of my heart, the world is young; love lies hidden in every rose! every song that the skylark sung once, we thought, must come to a close: now we know the spirit of song, song that is merged in the chant of the whole, hand in hand as we wander along, what should we doubt of the years that roll? ii. heart of my heart, we cannot die! love triumphant in flower and tree, every life that laughs at the sky tells us nothing can cease to be: one, we are one with the song to-day, one with the clover that scents the world, one with the unknown, far away, one with the stars, when earth grows old. iii. heart of my heart, we are one with the wind, one with the clouds that are whirled o'er the lea, one in many, o broken and blind, one as the waves are at one with the sea! ay! when life seems scattered apart, darkens, ends as a tale that is told, one, we are one, o heart of my heart, one, still one, while the world grows old.

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