The Luckless Garden

I ran across this wonderful poem by Ina Rousseau in the latest Harper’s magazine. I plan to cut it out and paste it inside the front cover of my much worn and annotated copy of Paradise Lost.

Explosion in Motion

While digging around for my paper on Eve, I found a poem I wrote for Andy the summer of 2003. It’s one of my favorites:

My heart is an explosion in motion / an experimental drum full of ocean

A fever-pitch pounding / a shofar sounding / redefining fervor / calling me forward

Zion is our land / your hands, your lips could heal those bloodied sands

Ancient and war torn / broken and lovelorn / but for your friendship / this heart would be

My body is a constellation of nations / a dark and powerful inspiration

Hips swaying, breasts swelling / your body compelling / you drive me to fury / you push me to peace

Long Distance Relationship

There is a hole in my life - a gash cold and gaping.
It is the absence of you, it stretches corner to corner
From the long expanses, the preplanned weeks
When your smell fades from my apartment
And I forget what you look like, except in photographs.

It’s telling, with all the miles that separate us
That the small warm inches of smile
And stubble
And hazel flecked with grey
Are the most important distances I have ever traveled.