Thanks for this post, Maya – it's always the right time for a love poem, even if Valentine's Day is a little in the rearview mirror. Since most work in this category is about the desire for attachment or the mourning of its loss, I am going to post in favor of married love. Here are two Wild Sonnets written to my wife – one during our 25th year together and another written in celebration of our 30th anniversary.
Great post, Maya. One of my favorite short love poems is 'The Relationship' by John Glenday. It touches on the universality on belonging with this beautiful line:
"I am to you as you are to me as we are to everything."
Beautiful selection. Tonight, the June Jordan and Caroline Bird stand out. I wonder if it’s because they both include a lot of sensory (and thus sensual) detail that made me feel them.
I don’t get it. If you’re passionate about healthcare, racial inequality, and healing the earth, why aren’t you writing about them? Why are you writing about love? Be yourself. The world needs more voices about racial inequality about healthcare than about love right now.
Thanks for this post, Maya – it's always the right time for a love poem, even if Valentine's Day is a little in the rearview mirror. Since most work in this category is about the desire for attachment or the mourning of its loss, I am going to post in favor of married love. Here are two Wild Sonnets written to my wife – one during our 25th year together and another written in celebration of our 30th anniversary.
--------------------------------------
Wild Sonnet #125 –
The headlong and havoc in the heart –
Such longings make us lean, and can
Never pass for love. The ache that hollows
In the cavity and region of the ribs,
A suction and consumption of the soul –
What other vacancy can claim to be
At the fork of feeling and divinity?
----
That is to love as the seed is to the tree,
As mere conception to the act
Of constancy. More to the meaning are
The mornings of a hundred seasons spent
In talk, or the nights that numberless go by,
Where the sinking stars will from the sky
Look back upon the light of you and I.
--------------------------------------
Wild Sonnet #318
For thirty years one bed has nightly held
Our bodies both in the quilt and cover
That marriage at its best can be. Separate
As our dreamings must by nature be housed
Alone, a single room has coupled them,
And laid our rest and reveries – side to side,
Man and angel, a boy of blessings and his bride.
----
Tradition whispers these to be the days
Of pearl, a globe of gleaming hidden
In the hardness of a fretted shell. In this
Description lies, and yet is true in this:
Amid a world of turbulence and tides
We have together taught the sands to shine
Into a singled thing that's yours and mine.
Beautiful!
So good! I love seeing Auden’s name written out in full. The Caroline Bird poem takes my breath away, so impeccable.
I loved that too!!!!
"We just want to be land or / be landed on."
LOL, so true!
I loved her session with us so much!!!
The Auden poem may be my favorite of his. The first two lines: stunning. And Caroline Bird! Love these selections. Thank you, Maya.🙏🌹
The Haiku!
Was that written
just for me
and he?
love comes quietly ❤️❤️❤️
So beautiful 💛
Loving you is a long river running, so tender.
Great post, Maya. One of my favorite short love poems is 'The Relationship' by John Glenday. It touches on the universality on belonging with this beautiful line:
"I am to you as you are to me as we are to everything."
I was delighted to see that he's on Substack. Such an amazing poet. Thanks, Mark. x
Where are the stars that show us to our love
inevitable
…
and breathing that quiet air (Poem for my Love, June Jordan)
The sunlight is meticulous. And the river
holds its tongue.
…
We just want to land
or be landed on. (Mid-air, Caroline Bird)
Love comes quietly
finally, drops
about me on me
in the old ways. (Love Comes Quietly, (the whole thing), Robert Creely)
The tender things are those
we fold away.
…
Intimate the silence,
dim and warm (We Have Not Long to Love, Tennessee Williams)
Love rereading these lines. Thank you!
Beautiful selection. Tonight, the June Jordan and Caroline Bird stand out. I wonder if it’s because they both include a lot of sensory (and thus sensual) detail that made me feel them.
Yes, they’re both so marvelous at that in their own ways.
Yes, the Auden poem! "Soul and body have no bounds". Mid-Air is like a tightrope or a symphony.
Love Sappho!
So do I!! x
The rivers and autumn wind are gorgeous but it’s that third stanza of Auden’s that always gives me the chills.
Yes, that Auden poem is one of my favorites of his, totally.
I'm a haiku fan
the form imposes rigor,
so truth and beauty
It’s an incredible form, yes!
My reply was an attempt at a haiku.
Yes, I got that! :)
I don’t get it. If you’re passionate about healthcare, racial inequality, and healing the earth, why aren’t you writing about them? Why are you writing about love? Be yourself. The world needs more voices about racial inequality about healthcare than about love right now.