untitled poem by Jane Campbell Flood
San Francisco, Summer of 1967
I
I'm having a good time in the attic
this afternoon
with the sun and the wind all around me
and the new baby
thoughts are like songs
happy songs
and worried songs
some short, some long
thoughts
like yours
like mine
because I'm me
because you're you
and underneath them all
we grow loving each other more
"So sweet and pure is your soul
So sweet and pure is mine"
I love loving you
I love loving me
glad there is you and me and us
and all the afternoons and nights and mornings
of the child and the woman
of the child and the man
of God and all life
II
Summer winds screetch at my skin
my body minds my mind
I hear the wind
Why is it so strong
Why now
the trees will lose their leaves in fall
the tides cannot be hurried
Wind, why do you try to cool the sun
Why do I hear you so often
as often as the sun is strongest
and because you come at day
why must you come again at night
do you think the stars need you
their movement is beyond knowing
but I can see the stars
and I cannot see you, wind
is that why your sounds are loved
is that why you screetch at my skin
while I look at the stars
is it Love that I feel when I listen to you
is it Love that keeps me here,
wondering
III
Why do men reason their best moments away
Why is a poem sometimes only one line long
Why does my mind sometimes block my desires
What can our bodies give to our minds
but the knowledge that everything is beautiful
Why does the body resist the mind
and the mind resist the body
but why does grass turn brown in summer
and what makes my fingertips feel as they feel
What has created the glory in my lover's eyes
or the perfection of his body next to mine
What strong and delicious flavor comes from his skin
between his legs, foam
low in the center of him, loving crying
gasping joy
let me touch and admire
as milk now flows through my breasts
nipples stretching
God is found
He at the beginning
of all these wonders
these wonderings
catching us closer
to the center of the knowing and the unknowing
into that silent collision
of birth and death
the center of all fires
and their flames
IV
I gaze and laugh silently
surprised at how simple
my life is
that someone should ask me
how or why
is strange, maybe unreal
watch the cat in the morning
the sun when the day is tired
watch lovers look at one another
I hear you whistle
I gaze and laugh silently
Why give me reasons for anything!
for the moment you are not sure
to laugh or cry
God looks down upon you and loves you.
V
A blind man held my hand
and I felt his heart beating through it
My lover's hands touched my breast
my eyes closed
I thought it was his stomach pressed
We smile and everything is felt
turn away and we must search again
come back and we remember
I left the blind man and went to my lover
from my lover I went to my friend
from night till morning we made love
now from now, and from yesterday until tomorrow
I've remembered love
its coming never stops
beyond the judgement of the mind
beyond the seclusion of desire
into the air my energies press
into the air, colors emerge
in radiant purple
yellow darts shining like jagged gold
pass among us
still too hot to touch
although we smile and see
Text © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler for Jane Campbell Flood and her heirs.
This poem was preserved through the wisdom of my late, dear friend Juliette Savary,
who copied it out by hand and entrusted it to me. May it be a blessing for all and a monument
to the memory of the poet, Jane Campbell Flood.
No comments:
Post a Comment