Session 8: When Love Walks In...

How do people fall in love? Seems like such a simple question, but there are at least as many answers as their are persons in the world--and almost certainly more. It's different for everyone, every time, and that's what makes it such a sublime experience, what makes it the single most human event in our lives. These poems try to capture some of the ways that I have fallen in love, the drives and sensations behind them as well as the overwhelming power of the experience. As always, I hope you enjoy them.

I. Rhythms

The music of life picks out its

Enthralling rhythm in your dark eyes,

Expertly playing its pentatonic of conviviality

     in the way they gleam brighter than stars,

In the curve of your lips and the sway of your hips,

Until all the world becomes ensnared,

Slaves to the music that dwells in your soul.

And then, at once, that devilish player

Strikes a resounding chord with just a flash

     Of your elusive smile,

A major thing, infusing the ear with its genial worth

     and sonic power.

He changes then and strums another--this one

     the ebon temptation of your locks,

And another! The way your laugh

     pierces the hearts of all who hear it,

And another! The unfiltered ecstasy it is

     to be graced by your presence.

He plays them now, unseen, releasing the notes

     that you are to the room,

And the room dances madly, clapping their hands

    in order to keep time with the frenzied pace,

Joining their music to yours.

And I go among them, clapping and dancing

    more fervently than any other,

Captured and hypnotized by that rapturous music

    that I hear whenever I look upon you.

II. Ambush

 

From what feverish dream did you invade,

Which exquisite madness gave you life?

Before—a phantasm, an echo, a reflection!

An insubstantial creature of thought,

Girded about by half-sensed, fiery desire

And crowned with a wreath of forlorn hopes.

But now, now in this hidden hour of the soul

You charge like some enraged beast

Out of the jungles of my imagination,

Rampaging unchecked and unchallenged

As you tear through the veil that hitherto

Kept you at bay, kept you a half-formed,

Half-dreamed, half-conceived and half-wished

Fantasy that had no rightful place in my heart.

But it was not enough, could never have been enough!,

To check your advance: you forced your way in

And have become entrenched, unyielding.

And now I can’t escape you, cannot retreat from you,

And daily the desire to do so ebbs.

You engulf me, assault my dreams

And my waking thoughts in equal measure,

And I offer diminishing resistance.

I think I’m beginning to love you.

III. Detrás del portal

Me encuentro desanclado del flujo inexorable del tiempo

Cuando miro a tus ojos alejandritas con ansia, con amor;

Echado a la deriva por un mar tempestuoso sin refugio,

Azotado sin poder hacer nada, una hoja por el oleaje

O una sola, asediada llama parpadeando en una tormenta.

Y reculo antes del poder terrible y tremendo

De esos ojos hechiceros, a la vez aterrorizado y acobardado,

Arrastrado al abismo por un deseo gigantesco,

Un deseo imposible de quedar arraigado para siempre a tu lado,

De pasar estos mis días intemporales por tu abrazo,

De llenar mi eternidad con tus besos y con tus suspiros,

Y de desvanecerme con alegría al olvido mientras el fuego irresistible

Que prendes por mi alma me quema a cenizas, echadas al viento.

Pero parpadeo, y me entero que acabo de sentarme a tu lado,

Que no ha transcurrido más que un sólo momento evanescente

Mirando fijamente a tus ojos y siendo perdido por la infinidad.

IV. Soñador

Aunque consciente, me desperté como de un sueño,
Un sueño que me apoderaba sin señales,
Un sueño que me parecía—ojála—inacabale:
¿Y quién conoce todos los senderos del sueño?
¿Quién ha recorrido todos sus campos anchos y abiertos,
Sus montañas nevadas con sus cumbres ocultados por las nubes,
Las rejizas tenebrosas que duermen al fondo de sus mares,
Los altos y frescos palacios de su cielo azulado?
¿Quién ha experimentado el beso divino de sus mil soles,
El extásis indescribible de vagar por aquellos dominios,
El placer de estirarse hacica la eternidad por sus playas,
El hechizo todopoderoso de quedar infinitamente por aquél reino?
Pues yo soy él quien tiene este conocimiento místico,
Él que ha recorrido estos caminos misteriosos,
Él que ha experimentado todos sus secretos ocultos.
Conozco este dulce y divino misterio, y experimento
Esta abundancia de felicidad y amor celestial
Cuando me desperté y veo tus ojos alejandritas
Clavados cariñosamente en los míos.