Unconventional Love Sonnet #6
In perfect Eden, self awareness -- the painful
recognition of I and Thou -- forever destroyed
the innocent bliss, set man and woman
on a path from the oceanic to something other.
So many thorns, so many more serpents
tempting us with greater knowledge, offering
us eternity in the DNA of flesh, each step
taking us farther from that distant home.
How do we navigate the sorrows we have known?
What talismans do we finger to protect us
from pain, from separation, from ourselves?
If I promise her forever, will she understand
that I will one day die? If our bodies dissolve
the illusion of time, can we stay there?
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2 comments:
I dig this one, a lot! One of the things (actually, the major one) that gives Neruda's so much power is his intensive metaphorism, which keeps blocking the reader from a literal parsing of the poem's meaning. You've got something like that going here. And it has great movement too, a sort of evolution (from the garden to reponsibility to those backward glances toward bliss toward bliss's reentry by another--more evolved-- portal). Very cool.
Kai in NYC
Thanks, Kai,
That means a lot coming from you.
Peace,
Bill
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