Facing the Abyss

Something sultry for your weekend

Photo by Eduardo Gutierrez on Unsplash

I’ve been seeing a lot of love poems recently. February brings that out in people. It’s made me think of a poem I wrote years ago that many of you might not have seen. And even if you saw it when I first shared it, this version is slightly different. I messed with the line breaks a little in the final stanza. I can’t help myself sometimes with old poems and new line breaks. Anyway, here it is.

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Facing the Abyss

I am the ocean you do not know.

They didn’t teach you 
about me in school because
they do not know I exist.

I am uncharted territory.

I will swallow you whole
and smile
as you sink below
my surface, mapping 
the ridges and valleys
of my depths.

I’ll show you things you never knew
because you didn’t know where to look.

I’ll guide you to another planet,
another time, and as you float
within me, I will sigh,
content, knowing
it’s not the world that you desire
but me.

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WEEKEND POTPOURRI:

• Currently on repeat:

• Not a poem exactly. More of a poetic love letter. It’s beautiful no matter what you call it.

• Fog and frost. What a delicious combination.

• This is also a love letter, of sorts, about the feelings the rain brings.

• A(nother) poem:

FLIRTATION

By Rita Dove

After all, there’s no need
to say anything

at first. An orange, peeled
and quartered, flares

like a tulip on a wedgewood plate
Anything can happen.

Outside the sun
has rolled up her rugs

and night strewn salt
across the sky. My heart

is humming a tune
I haven’t heard in years!

Quiet’s cool flesh—
let’s sniff and eat it.

There are ways
to make of the moment

a topiary
so the pleasure’s in

walking through.