David Whyte
LOVE IN THE NIGHT
…All night like this I find myself asleep
and awake, turned toward the moon
and turned toward you, your warmth
inviting me to bring you close
and leave you alone. All night I find myself
unable to choose between the love
I feel for you through closeness
and the grief of having to let you go
through distance, so that it seems
I can only breathe fully in the dark
by taking you in and giving you away
in your quiet rhythm of appearance
and disappearance, setting you free
and letting you return in your breathing
and not breathing, or your half sighed phrases
spoken to the dark, whispered from the dream
in which you live, so that I lie between sleeping
and waking, seeing you are here and dreaming
you are gone, wanting to hold you and wanting
to let you go, living far inside you as you breath
close to me, and living far beyond you,
as I wait through the hours of the night
for you to wake and find me again,
the light in your eyes half-dreaming on the pillow
looking back at me, seeing me at last,
not knowing how far I have travelled,
through what distance I have come to find you,
where I have been, or what I have seen,
how far, or how near, not knowing how
I have gained and lost you a hundred times
between darkness and dawn.
and awake, turned toward the moon
and turned toward you, your warmth
inviting me to bring you close
and leave you alone. All night I find myself
unable to choose between the love
I feel for you through closeness
and the grief of having to let you go
through distance, so that it seems
I can only breathe fully in the dark
by taking you in and giving you away
in your quiet rhythm of appearance
and disappearance, setting you free
and letting you return in your breathing
and not breathing, or your half sighed phrases
spoken to the dark, whispered from the dream
in which you live, so that I lie between sleeping
and waking, seeing you are here and dreaming
you are gone, wanting to hold you and wanting
to let you go, living far inside you as you breath
close to me, and living far beyond you,
as I wait through the hours of the night
for you to wake and find me again,
the light in your eyes half-dreaming on the pillow
looking back at me, seeing me at last,
not knowing how far I have travelled,
through what distance I have come to find you,
where I have been, or what I have seen,
how far, or how near, not knowing how
I have gained and lost you a hundred times
between darkness and dawn.
...
Excerpt from
'LOVE IN THE NIGHT'
'LOVE IN THE NIGHT'
In THE SEA IN YOU
Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press
Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love
© David Whyte and Many Rivers Press
...
Arriving Light
Photo : David Whyte
Langley. Whidbey Island. November 2015
Photo : David Whyte
Langley. Whidbey Island. November 2015
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