Longing

There are lovers content with longing

I am not one of them

Cel mai frumos poem de dragoste

For Those Who Greeted Me 

1. You came to me this morning

And you handled me like meat.

You´d have to live alone to know

How good that feels, how sweet.

My mirror twin, my next of kin,

I´d know you in my sleep.

And who but you would take me in

A thousand kisses deep?

2. I loved you when you opened

Like a lily to the heat.

I´m just another snowman

Standing in the rain and sleet,

Who loved you with his frozen love

His second-hand physique -

With all he is, and all he was

A thousand kisses deep.

3. All soaked in sex, and pressed against

The limits of the sea:

I saw there were no oceans left

For scavengers like me.

We made it to the forward deck

I blessed our remnant fleet -

And then consented to be wrecked

A thousand kisses deep.

4. I know you had to lie to me,

I know you had to cheat.

But the Means no longer guarantee

The Virtue in Deceit.

That truth is bent, that beauty spent,

That style is obsolete -

Ever since the Holy Spirit went

A thousand kisses deep.

5. (So what about this Inner Light

That´s boundless and unique?

I´m slouching through another night

A thousand kisses deep.)

6. I´m turning tricks; I´m getting fixed,

I´m back on Boogie Street.

I tried to quit the business -

Hey, I´m lazy and I´m weak.

But sometimes when the night is slow,

The wretched and the meek,

We gather up our hearts and go

A thousand kisses deep.

7. (And fragrant is the thought of you,

The file on you complete -

Except what we forgot to do

A thousand kisses deep.)

8. The ponies run, the girls are young,

The odds are there to beat.

You win a while, and then it´s done -

Your little winning streak.

And summoned now to deal

With your invincible defeat,

You live your life as if it´s real

A thousand kisses deep.

9. (I jammed with Diz and Dante -

I did not have their sweep -

But once or twice, they let me play

A thousand kisses deep.)

10. And I´m still working with the wine,

Still dancing cheek to cheek.

The band is playing "Auld Lang Syne" -

The heart will not retreat.

And maybe I had miles to drive,

And promises to keep -

You ditch it all to stay alive

A thousand kisses deep.

11. And now you are the Angel Death

And now the Paraclete;

And now you are the Savior's Breath

And now the Belsen heap.

No turning from the threat of love,

No transcendental leap -

As witnessed here in time and blood

A thousand kisses deep.

Leonard Cohen

September 21, 1998

A poem based on "Lightness of being."

Painting: Vilhelm Hammersshoi

A lover weighing his words

Every one

of those smiling atoms

that are you,

I love.

All those cuddly molecules

that clamber over each other

and puppy-growl comically

at each other,

I admire.

Those cascades

that shimmer through

your nerves

to produce your

hidden smile,

I dote on.

What you are

I cannot weigh,

I have no way

to grasp you fully.

Where you are is light

in which I track myself,

bouncing softly off

the bubbles

of your thoughts.

De Waal Venter

South-African poet

The analytical lover

The analytical lover

This screen

that separates us,

what does it consist of?

How does it prevent me

from taking in your words

and fit them in my mouth?

How does it stop me

from holding the joyous surges

of your body

in my own?

This screen

that separates us,

how does it work its division?

How does it catch your thoughts

and strain through to me

so little of what you think?

I see you move

behind the screen,

and I yearn

to put my hand in yours.

I hear the cadence of your voice,

the timbre of your words,

the lilt of your speech;

but most of you

is screened out.

De Waal Venter

Valentine

Painting by Cyril Rolando

Valentine

Not a red rose or satin heart.
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.
Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your refelction
like a wobbling photo of grief.
I am trying to be truthful.
Not a cute card or a kissogram.
I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
positive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.
Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its sent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.

Carol Ann Duffy

I crave your mouth - Pablo Neruda

Image: "The hug" by Nan Goldin

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair,
Silent, starving I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disquiets me,
I search the liquid sound of your steps all day.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
For your hands the color of the wild grain,
I hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your loveliness,
The nose, sovereign of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

And I walk hungry, smelling the twilight
Looking for you, for your hot heart,
Like a puma in the barren wilderness.


Pablo Neruda

Artisjok - one of the most beautiful erotic poems in Afrikaans . . .

Image: Nan Goldin "The Hug"

Artisjok

Laatnag vleg ’n skielike ritseling

My stadig los

Uit swaar arms van my geliefde,

Donker suster van my dood.

Dou sak heeltemal te vroeg vanjaar

Op my grasperk en plante neer.

Takke en blare ril nog waarskuwend

As ek deur die wind na my groentetuin beur.

My flitslig skok die grootste plant

Wat haar lang, silwergrys blare vou,

Ritselend toe, dig

Om die geheime, pers, glinsterende vrug.

Raak my aan, asseblief,

Raak my nie nou al aan nie.

Uit hierdie bitter grond gebore

Tussen windhande wat my wil klief.

Ek vou die stingels versigtig weg,

Pluk ‘n paar blare en proe,

Huiwerig om my tong,

Donkergroen, suursoet parfuum van die nag.

Net een maal het ek jou so sien lê

Ná ‘n laatnagmaal van artisjok.

Jou hande was lig oor jou borste gevou,

Jou bene terughoudend gekruis.

Laag vir laag het ek jou afgeskil

Met ‘n versigtige, moedelose tong,

Tot by die diep, geheime, bitter vrug

Wat weer terugtrek tussen jou dye.

Deur strelende hande van jou geliefde,

Jou lokkende suster van die slaap

Kon ek hoor: raak my aan, asseblief,

Raak my nooit meer aan nie;

te lig om ’n groen hart finaal te klief.

© H.J. Pieterse (uit: Die burg van hertog Bloubaard, Tafelberg, 2000)