Eternal Eros

I honestly can’t tell you why I’ve written this poem, at least not very clearly. It’s an attempt to put into words an experience which I hope all of us have at times. It’s an encounter with eternity framed from eternity’s perspective, I guess. In these timeless moments, to me at least, there’s always a call, a plea for us to slow down, to stop, and then a corner of the necessary veil between us and forever is briefly twitched aside and we are somehow filled with mystery, somehow spoken to without words. This, then, is a poem born of unbidden ecstasy. I don’t even have the song of a nightingale for inspiration as did Keats. I hope it holds some truth for you. For me, it’s a thing beyond joy!

Eternal Eros

Pray, pilgrim, pause a while,

And rest you from your restlessness,

For I wish to know you better,

To teach you the true meaning of time,

Which is only myself, poured drop by drop

For you who cannot take myself entire,

Though I long to linger with you and join you on your journey.

But here, if you stay your steps for me,

That drop will flow over you like a flood,

Drenching but never drowning you,

Quenching without crushing your spirit,

Bathing your bruises in unbroken beauty’s balsam,

For a while, alas, for only a while.

For now, our trysts must be few and far between,

Our moments chosen carefully that my touch will not shatter you.

Yet, little by little, if you stop when I call,

We will come to know each other well, if you will,

That when we meet at last as lovers do,

With time’s veil torn, full fair to each other’s eye,

You will claim me without fear as your own familiar friend.