POEM: WOMAN TO LOVER
by contemplativeinquiry
I am fire
Stilled to water
A wave
Lifting from the abyss
In my veins
The moon-drawn tide rises
Into a tree of flowers
Scattered in sea-foam
I am air
Caught in a net
The prophetic bird
That sings in a reflected sky
I am a dream before nothingness
I am a crown of stars
I am the way to die.
Kathleen Raine Collected Poems Counterpoint Press, 2011
NOTE: Rupert Spira* uses this poem to illustrate “the dissolution of the separate self which is the essence of all intimacy”. Given that the poet is Kathleen Raine, I accept this as a fair interpretation of her work. But of course her own language is more resonant and compelling, and suggests more than it says – as is the way of poetry.
*Rupert Spira The Nature of Consciousness: Essays on the Unity of Mind and Matter Oxford: Sahaja Press, 2017