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