Love Note
– After Walt Whitman
I may appear to you as a “tattered coat upon a stick,”*
my gate, like a comic, tripping over a rake,
my luckless visage, a vacillating army of lumps,
but what is that to me? Should your amusement
be full and friendly, I will celebrate you, and me, and sing,
“For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.”
It is hot August and my birthday is in cool November
but birthdays, for me, come every day, when
I arise before dawn and see the wonder
of my splayed-out partner,
and by my mind’s eye, see the beauty of our grown sons,
their partners, all together, like a choir,
a single breath, a Kyrie, a hymn to greet the sun.
I walk down to the mystical margins of the sea,
where the shore shakes itself like a wet dog,
and there, hardly surprising, is a love note,
written in seaweed, addressed to me,
addressed to you.
*W. B. Yeats
May a recognition of our essential oneness turn the tide away from our current polarization and give us the grace and space for differences and diversity.
Everything about this is gorgeous. I love the art. (Wish I’d painted that!)
‘the beauty of our grown sons,
their partners, all together, like a choir,
a single breath, a Kyrie, a hymn to greet the sun.’
‘where the shore shakes itself like a wet dog,’
Every line is a delicacy. Thank you, Stephen.
Thank you, Laurie! For kindness and encouragement.
Makes you feel the love of unconditionality, family and the moist sea breeze
Thank you, Ananda!
Steve, someday after our atoms have dissipated, I envision some enterprising PhD candidate will do a dissertation on your poetry, analyzing the philosophy and the theology. They will scrutinize your sources and your influence. I think this will be a very useful research but it won’t substitute for the simple reading and re-reading of your words themselves. The appreciation of the “love note” theme should be prominent in such a study. Watery eyes right now!
Thank you so much for this, Sam. That means a great deal to me.