Thursday, April 28, 2011

TRUE LOVE by SHARON OLDS

This is a crazy week. Many deadlines, much to do. Amid my stress and madness though, this beautiful poem arrived from Knopf this morning as a part of their poem a day series for National Poetry Month. I love the work of Sharon Olds and found this poem to be just a perfect moment in my day. You can see the original post here. And if you love it, buy Wellspring by Sharon Olds here.

True Love

In the middle of the night, when we get up
after making love, we look at each other in
complete friendship, we know so fully
what the other has been doing. Bound to each other
like mountaineers coming down from a mountain,
bound with the tie of the delivery-room,
we wander down the hall to the bathroom, I can
hardly walk, I hobble through the granular
shadowless air, I know where you are
with my eyes closed, we are bound to each other
with huge invisible threads, our sexes
muted, exhausted, crushed, the whole
body a sex—surely this
is the most blessed time of my life,
our children asleep in their beds, each fate
like a vein of abiding mineral
not discovered yet. I sit
on the toilet in the night, you are somewhere in the room,
I open the window and snow has fallen in a
steep drift, against the pane, I
look up, into it,
a wall of cold crystals, silent
and glistening, I quietly call to you
and you come and hold my hand and I say
I cannot see beyond it. I cannot see beyond it.

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