Handmaid

Lord, when I walked with you under the stars
and we were overcome by desire
and we lay down in the desert night,
I fell into your eyes, tasted your salt.

And, Lord, when I was impaled on you,
gazed on your face with devotion,
you spoke of the hard day's ride
and distances you had crossed to couple with me.

I have opened wide as a rivermouth to you
and would have you invade my cells,
my womb, my heart, my head, O Lordy
do with me what you will.

- Paula Meehan, from "Pillow Talk". 1994

To the Handmaid

- for Paula Meehan

Lady, when we walked beneath those stars
and that feeling overtook us
and together we lay in that cool sand
you trusted my eyes, drank my desire.

And Lady, when you sprang from me, like a tree
stretching to the sky, gazing down at me
from that height with such undisguised delight
I swore I would cross a thousand distances to be one with you.

You opened yourself to me like a dawn breaking
and I would be infused with that light.
My will, my heart, my head, O Lady,
I could sink to the bottom of you.

- Sunday morning, July 28, 2009, Dublin

version 2.

Take from me everything, but leave me my Ecstasy,
and I am Richer still than all my Contemporaries.

Does such a fortune suit me ?
While at my very door

there are those who have much more than me ?
and yet they are so Poor !

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux et cjwm

version 2.

Immortality flees from fortune
We Borrow it to our Graves
We Hunger for a Promise
That the Force of our Love saves

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux et cjwm

Glory is a Bee.
It has a song,
It has a sting.
It also has a wing.

e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux par cjmw

Here we whiled away sweet hours
Timid in this room
Upon the walls of wishes played
The shadows of the Tomb.

e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux par cjmw

Words spoken by happy people
Are merely melody
But those who are awed by Beauty
Express it silently.

e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux par cjmw

God is in Truth a jealous God
He could not bear to discover
How we love nothing more
than to play with one another.

e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux par cjmw

As Subtle as tomorrow
the one that never came
a Guaranteed conviction
yet nothing but a name.

e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux par cjmw

That Love is all there is
is all we know of Love
and that's enough, it's mark is made
and to its measure paid.

e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux par cjmw

version 2.

In morning's Warm Clarity
My first certitude was you
My first worry was that Mystery
In the Night would swallow you

- e. dickinson aprés claire malroux par cjwm

version 2.

When the Memory is Full
We put the Lid on tight.
The First Syllable of Morning -
'Presumptuous' said the Night.

- e. dickinson, claire malroux et moi

version 2.

The Vanity of what's Earthly
Is the Refrain that Nature Sings.
She Blesses with Her Beauty -
and undoes everything.

- e. dickinson aprés Claire Malroux et moi

version 2.

How good it is - this lava bed,
For this hard-working boy -
Who must awake to wake the world
And dress his drowsy joy.

- e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux, transl by cjwm

The Glimmer of one Heroic act
Gives Strange Illumination;
The Slow fuse of the Possible
Lights the Fire of Imagination

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux et cjwm

Of Glory not a thing survives
Though Eternal are its scars -
The Asterix is for the Dead
The Living have the Stars

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux et cjwm

Immortality flees its fortune
We Borrow it to our Graves
We Hunger for a Promise
The Force of Human Love

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux et cjwm

version 2.

Is it too late, my Dear, to touch you ?
Here's a moment we once knew -
Oceanic Love, Terrestrial Love,
and Celestial Love too.

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux et cjwm

version 1

Is it too late, Dear, to touch you ?
We've known this moment before -
The Ocean Love and the Earth Love -
and the Love of Heaven too.

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux et cjwm

A letter is an earthly pleasure,
One denied the Gods.

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux et cjwm

Take from me everything, but leave me my Ecstasy,
and I am Richer still than all my Contemporaries.

Does such a fortune suit me ?
While at my very door

there are those who have
much more than me ?

How Vast their Poverty !!

- e.dickinson, aprés claire
malroux et cjwm

As if I were to Question
a Banal Autumn,
which puzzled in my hand.

A Foreigner toppled a Kingdom,
while I, perplexed, stood by.

As if I were to pray to the Orient
to give to me a Morning which would Rise
like a porpoise -

and shatter the Dawn.

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux et cjwm

You left me with Regret.
Would that we had Never met.
Your Heart - a Sudden Stranger.
Remember to Forget.

- e. dickinson, aprés Claire Malroux, transl : cjwm

Certain Arrows don't Strike their marks
and Others, nothing Save -
Who calls upon Evasion
Fights Ashes in the Grave.

- e. dickinson, aprés Claire Malroux, transl : cjwm

And so his Breast did Swell
and he threw forth such a Note
That the Universe was Dazzled -
By Such Sweet Sound Smote.

- e. dickinson, aprés Claire Malroux, transl : cjwm

To Marry one's self to Virtue
May be a Discrete and Pleasant Union
But Nature relishes her Roses
As she continues to Consume them.

- e. dickinson, aprés Claire Malroux, transl : cjwm

The Geneology of her Honey
Matters little to the Bee -
A Clover suddenly for She
is Aristocracy

- e. dickinson, aprés Claire Malroux, transl : cjwm

To a friendly Tomb I take you
It will not hold your Hand
Nor enfold you in its arms
Nor offer a thing you'll Understand.

- e. dickinson, aprés Claire Malroux, transl : cjwm

The Flower is no Bother
So tiny is its foot
and lo, compare its tip-toe
to yours, the finest Boot

- e. dickinson, aprés Claire Malroux, transl : cjwm

Not knowing when the Dawn will Come
I Open every Door,
Will she be feathered like a Bird
or strike like a Wave upon the Shore ?

- e. dickinson, aprés Claire Malroux, transl : cjwm

This morning comes just Once
But imagines coming twice
Two Dawns for a Single Morning
Gives Life a Sudden Price

- e. dickinson, aprés Claire Malroux, transl : cjwm

How good it is - this Lava Bed,
For this hard-working Boy -
Who must awake to wake the World
And Dress this Drowsy Day.
- e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux, transl by cjwm

By fevered Days - Driven to Forest
Or to the Running Water - cool among mosses -
and nothing - save shadows - Ravage the Silence.
Sometimes it seems - that's all there is.

- e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux, transl by cjwm

The fruit defends its flavour
which the Orchard's rule maligns
How succulent within the Pod -
The Pea to its Work Resigned.

- e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux, transl by cjwm

See the Summer Sky -
Poems ought not within books lie -
Real Poems Fly.
- e. dickinson, aprés claire malroux,
transl by cjwm with an assist from m.l.

To meet the very air -
Nature Bore us sweet guitars
No doubt the birds were fashioned
To be precocious Bards.

- e.dickinson aprés claire malroux, aprés moi

Summer placed her Bonnet
Upon a giant shelf
Unseen, a ribbon slipped from it
And you took it for yourself.

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux, aprés moi

Away In her wooden drawer
the Summer laid her Supple glove
Of all the Places to Forget -
She forgot the Awe of Love.

- e.dickinson aprés claire malroux, aprés moi

They do not need me, but You Never Know,
So I leave my Heart for All to See -
My little smile, might best be served
Precisely as Needs Be.

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux, aprés moi

Decline without Dishonour,
Beneath a fickle colourfield -
Which will not let the Eye decide :
To yield or not to yield.

- e.dickinson, aprés claire malroux, aprés moi