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Dry Rivers and Barren Spaces
[This poem came to me as a recollection
from a past life, and is included in my
unpublished short story "At
Least Once In India".]
Daniel Raphael ~ 1998
My sweet, sweet Woman,
when I think of you
so many thoughts
come to my mind.
I've told you before
how difficult it is to
use this language adequately
to convey my thankfulness,
my gratitude, my overwhelming joy,
blissfulness, and more
for your love, which you pour
so generously over me.
I appeal to ancient poetic sages
to come to my assistance now.
Your presence and affection
are like the rains --
they fill my empty rivers
and make the open spaces green.
Wild flowers grow in barren
rock fields -- they turn their
faces toward the sun
following its glory
through the day, as I
keep my thoughts ever on you.
Your presence and touch
are like the glacial cold winds
that flow out of the high mountain
canyons onto the torrid desert heat.
My face burns in the mid-day sun
but your touch cools me, refreshes me.
Even the thought of you takes me
to the high places of ice and snow.
My darling,
being there to see you rise
beside me is like stepping outside
our tent to see the sun rise
in the east --
a glorious explosion
of orange and rose that fills my soul
and excites my body to become
one with its horizon,
energized as a god for the day.
And when you touch me,
it is like the times when
we have sat under the black sky
sipping wine and gazing into
the heart of every star --
I am at peace, calmed, and safe.
No concern fills my mind
but the infinite gratitude
I know when your hands and fingers
touch my soul the way you do.
What force, what energy must exist
in the earth that seeds break
out of their hard dry shells
and come forth as green things
that bear abundance?
Surely it must the be
the same loving, nurturing energy
that fills my heart and sustains me
when I am gone on long
journeys to foreign lands --
a seed in hibernation containing
all the potential of another spring –
waiting to be nurtured by your
loving presence once again.
Yes, my darling,
you fill the dry rivers
of my heart,
and make the barren, rocky spaces
of my soul
bloom with wild flowers
once again.
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