Poems

Who ever desired each other as we do? Let us lookfor the ancient ashes of hearts that burned,and let our kisses touch there, one by one,till the flower, disembodied, rises again. Let us love that Desire that consumed its own fruitand went down, aspect and power, into the earth:We are its continuing light,its indestructible, fragile … Read more

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all dayI hunt for the liquid measure of your steps. I hunger for your sleek laugh,your hands the color of a savage harvest,hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,I want to eat … Read more

The light that rises from your feet to your hair,the strength enfolding your delicate form,are not mother of pearl, not chilly silver:you are made of bread, a bread the fire adores. The grain grew high in its harvest of you,in good time the flour swelled;as the dough rose, doubling your breasts,my love was the coal … Read more

I hunt for a sign of you in all the others,In the rapid undulant river of women,Braids, shyly sinking eyes,Light step that slices, sailing through the foam. Suddenly I think I can make out your nails,Oblong, quick, nieces of a cherry:Then it’s your hair that passes by, and I thinkI see your image, a bonfire, … Read more

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,in secret, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that never bloomsbut carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;thanks to … Read more

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,in secret, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that never bloomsbut carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;thanks to … Read more

Before I loved you, love, nothing was my own: I wavered through the streets, amongObjects: Nothing mattered or had a name: The world was made of air, which waited. I knew rooms full of ashes, Tunnels where the moon lived, Rough warehouses that growled ‘get lost’, Questions that insisted in the sand. Everything was empty, … Read more

Naked, you are simple as one of your hands, Smooth, earthy, small, transparent, round: You have moonlines, applepathways: Naked, you are slender as a naked grain of wheat. Naked, you are blue as the night in Cuba; You have vines and stars in your hair; Naked, you are spacious and yellow As summer in a … Read more

You are the daughter of the sea, oregano’s first cousin.Swimmer, your body is pure as the water;cook, your blood is quick as the soil.Everything you do is full of flowers, rich with the earth. Your eyes go out toward the water, and the waves rise;your hands go out to the earth and the seeds swell;you … Read more

You are the daughter of the sea, oregano’s first cousin.Swimmer, your body is pure as the water;cook, your blood is quick as the soil.Everything you do is full of flowers, rich with the earth. Your eyes go out toward the water, and the waves rise;your hands go out to the earth and the seeds swell;you … Read more