My OWL class asked us to bring in a poem or quote tonight. I wouldn’t normally post this kind of thing, but I liked a couple of the choices I found, and I think it does one good to periodically acknowledge and embrace the intimate aspects of life.
“Body, Remember”
by Constantine Cavafy, translated from Greek by Rae Dalven
Body, remember not only how much you were loved,
not only the beds on which you lay,
but also those desires for you
that glowed plainly in the eyes,
and trembled in the voice—and some
chance obstacle made futile.
Now that all of them belong to the past,
it almost seems as if you had yielded
to those desires—how they glowed,
remember, in the eyes gazing at you;
how they trembled in the voice, for you, remember, body.
“I Love Being Lost” by Karen Garrison
I love being lost
in the sound that mud makes
when it is soft and wet and begs
your fingers to stay a little while longer
and please play some more in my earth
smell this beautiful terra firma consuming you
begging you to forsake the skillful architecture of
your hands
to make a more marvelous mess
and I love you saying look baby I have found
this branch of myself that I can use to dig
your sweet red clay to death and I say yes dig me baby
dig me as if planting love like crocuses
beneath the window of my hips.
But ultimately, I had to take Sarah up on her challenge that I draw my contribution for the evening from Star Trek:
“Humans like to touch each other. They start with the hands and go from there.” –Guinan to Lal (TNG “The Offspring”)
