x "74

We lay down, and the pain let up.
We embraced, and the pain let go:
No more scalding regrets,
no scorching remorse
that oppressed the soul,
that weighed like a stone on the heart.
You, on top of me, heavy, immense,
and I, feeling so light."
— “[We lay down and the pain let up]” by Vera Pavlova, in If There is Something to Desire, trans. Steven Seymour

x "Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom."
— James Wright, from “A Blessing”

Love Song

How should I keep my soul
from touching yours? How shall I
lift it up beyond you to other things?
Ah, I would gladly hide it
in darkness with something lost
in some silent foreign place
that doesn’t tremble when your deeps stir.
Yet whatever touches you and me
blends us together the way a bow’s stroke
draws one voice from two strings.
Across what instrument are we stretched taut?
And what player holds us in his hand?
O sweet song.

— Rainer Maria Rilke, in New Poems, trans. Edward Snow

x "It’s easy to rip an unsewn stitch
Or tear the thread of an untold tale—
The song of us two together."
— Unknown author, from “Wulf and Eadwacer”, in The Exeter Book, trans. Craig Williamson
(Source: the-final-sentence)

x "Have I been here before
And is this—the reprinting
Of moments forgotten forever?"
— Anna Akhmatova, from an untitled poem, in The Complete Poems, trans. Judith Hemschemeyer

x "Goodbye, goodbye!
There was so much to love, I could not love it all;
I could not love it enough."
— Louise Bogan, in The Blue Estuaries: Poems (1923-1968), with thanks to journalofanobody

Enough

Enough. These few words are enough.
If not these words, this breath.
If not this breath, this sitting here.

This opening to the life
we have refused
again and again
until now.
Until now

— Mary Oliver

x "To love one person
Forges a new language,
Those who’ve been there,
Know."
— A. S. Kline, from “All The Tongues”, with thanks to ahuntersheart