#230: A bouquet of love poems ❤️
Eight utterly gorgeous poems on love and intimacy
Hey you,
I’m keeping today’s newsletter super short because time is fleeting, there’s too much on my plate suddenly and poetry is the only thing that is keeping me sane.
Poetry Corner
1. The Teapot by Robert Bly
That morning I heard water being poured into a teapot.
The sound was an ordinary, daily, cluffy sound.
But all at once, I knew you loved me.
An unheard-of thing, love audible in water falling.
2. O Small Sad Ecstasy of Love by Anne Carson
I like being with you all night with closed eyes.
What luck—here you are
coming
along the stars!
I did a road trip
all over my mind and heart
and
there you were
kneeling by the roadside
with your little toolkit
fixing something.
3. Loneliness by Timi Sanni
I invite you into this paradox of love
in solitude. In this house of silence,
for you, a companion. Visit me tonight
and let us both burn in the divine heat
of bodies. Trust me, I know the coldness
of the heart, frost spreading tiny fingers
upon the body, stretching like fractures,
like a web across the expanse of a room,
of the world, clouding everything it—
touches in the bleak darkness of doom.
Once, devoid of touch and loving, I too,
cursed the world and went to sleep. But
see, there’s always someone waiting in
the darkest corners of fate, to break you
into every fragment of sweetness. Come,
beloved. Behind every angel painting
this world in sentient glow, let my finger,
crooked and trembling, map your body
like a naive explorer. Let us trace a route
across unknown waters. Come quickly.
God must not know of this rebellion.
4. If A Lemon by Nikki Giovanni
If a lemon
Kissed a beet
Is it sour
Or is it sweet
If a bear
Gives
A Hug
Will it turn
Into a rug
And then there’s me
And there is you
I do sometimes wonder
What will we do
5. In the Middle by Barbara Crooker (Excerpt)
Time is always ahead of us, running down the beach, urging
us on faster, faster, but sometimes we take off our watches,
sometimes we lie in the hammock, caught between the mesh
of rope and the net of stars, suspended, tangled up
in love, running out of time.
Read the full poem here.
6. Basket of Figs by Ellen Bass
Bring me your pain, love. Spread
it out like fine rugs, silk sashes,
warm eggs, cinnamon
and cloves in burlap sacks. Show me
the detail, the intricate embroidery
on the collar, tiny shell buttons,
the hem stitched the way you were taught,
pricking just a thread, almost invisible.
Unclasp it like jewels, the gold
still hot from your body. Empty
your basket of figs. Spill your wine.
That hard nugget of pain, I would suck it,
cradling it on my tongue like the slick
seed of pomegranate. I would lift it
tenderly, as a great animal might
carry a small one in the private
cave of the mouth.
7. Not Anyone Who Says by Mary Oliver
Not anyone who says, “I’m going to be
careful and smart in matters of love,”
who says, “I’m going to choose slowly,”
but only those lovers who didn’t choose at all
but were, as it were, chosen
by something invisible and powerful and uncontrollable
and beautiful and possibly even
unsuitable —
only those know what I’m talking about
in this talking about love.
8. forgive me for the parts of you i’m yet to kiss by Ifeanyi Ogbo
i used to think there was only one part of
the body meant for kisses,
but on your body I discovered a thousand places.
you were born naked so I could clothe you with kisses,
my lips were made to adorn every inch of
the landscape of your skin.
kisses on places you’ll never want your mother
to read about,
sinful actions too holy for confession.
and when we finally merge into one
my body memorizing every part of yours
i discover there are ways to visit heaven without dying.
Wishing you all love in all its forms,
Rohini
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❤️❤️
Uff! What a selection. Thank you ❤️🌻