Celestial Body

If you are a poet, what sense is there

in having a lover if you are not willing

to immortalize her beauty and tenderness,

in verse? If you would not exult your

desire for her celestial body? If you would

only gaze upon her landscapes through

a telephoto lens, if your shod feet never seek

her hot sands; if your fear that she shares

her oasis with other travelers makes you

too timid to ever dip bare toes and

probe the depths of her spring?

 

The right woman does not pass by you

as a traveler. She leaves dusty footprints

in your living room, fingerprints on your

glasses, stands of hair deposited in fits

of passion in your bed. You hold her, and

hope and pray she does not break you

into pieces with her power, her gravitational

pull. And of course, she does, she does. But

she is also a creature of compassion. She

plans your reconstruction. She is Architect

to your Engineer, a tyrant to your servant.

 

A compass to the wilderness of your

barren heart, and a ladder to your rooftops.

She can be any damned thing you need

her to be- except inconsequential. She

emits too much celestial light of revelation

to be just another ordinary satellite

in your elliptical orbital path.

Author's Note

This was written for a friend who is afraid of getting too close to women in his life, of loving them. He is afraid of change, afraid of having to alter some aspect of his life to accommodate another.

Photo is my own. It is my beautiful city’s central park under a full moon. Because we live at 1.5 miles above sea level, the moon appears larger and brighter to us than most. Our city was once its own capital city of a [short-lived] independent country, and thus has its own anthem, named, appropriately enough, “Moon de Xelaju” (“Xela’s Moon). Xelaju is the Nahual Indian name for Quetzaltenango.

another one originaly written in Spanish, then translated. You can find the Sapnish version here:
http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/zorra_encantada/1829111/

Reviews

[emmajoy]

'She can be any damned thing you need -- -- her to be- except inconsequential.; Never was there so much truth in thirteen words!.

Your strength has always been in your verse.. you make life and its emotions sing in praise of both rights and wrongs... i wish you had time to post as much you did in the past.

The above surely directs a message so acute, it can't be misunderstood and yet.. yet holds a flicker of question to be noticed for what you are, not merely what he' appears to be. Your poetry is both slap on the wrist and smiling beckon. Tis wonderful, dear, oft absent friend

[Art Sun]

nice work Marie, you have expressed the entirety of not only the Woman, but the very essence of her Soul...nicely done...

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

The right woman can turn the hardest of men into a loving being. What a wonderful poem.
Been so long since I seen anything from you.