I look for the reasons.
The questions are coming,
but answers disappear in fog…
We'll just talk about the weather…
…Just talk…Just feel fluids coming from
each other's eyes… You care…You worry,
but cannot help. We'll talk about sports, health,
politics and won't care that everybody sees us just talking…
The main theme is painful. We go around and don't touch it…
Can you make me happy just by talking? Yeah…We're just friends.
…and yeah prestige and career are good reasons for denying silly affection,
fascinated and compromised the names of great personalities and smart minds.
We'll drink a 5 pm tea together, have a dinner and talk about fading day…
We need each other just for feeling closeness of strong bodies,
eyes that permit to lips a warm smile, besides words stream.
The opportunities arise always to open minded close friends
…Just talk.
…Just feel fluids.
…Just offer closeness.
Author notes
The poem is a prompt:
Half an hour
I never had you, nor will I ever have you
I suppose. A few words, an approach
as in the bar yesterday, and nothing more.
It is, undeniably, a pity. But we who serve Art
sometimes with intensity of mind, and of course only
for a short while, we create pleasure
which almost seems real.
So in the bar the day before yesterday -- the merciful alcohol
was also helping much --
I had a perfectly erotic half-hour.
And it seems to me that you understood,
and stayed somewhat longer on purpose.
This was very necessary. Because
for all the imagination and the wizard alcohol,
I needed to see your lips as well,
I needed to have your body close.
Constantine P. Cavafy (1917)
translated George Barbanis http://users.hol.gr/~barbanis/cavafy/
A contest entry
- Half an hour (contest) by just mercedes.
900 points, ended October 3, 11 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 9 of 9
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this is just awsome i adore the imagery and the passion it holds, it has that intensity of wanting, it keeps you gripped to the end,
adorable write.
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oooh, i like this, and shows a plutonic love at its closest, beautiful.
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Wonderful
One should be so lucky!
Howard
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Thank you for this entry into the contest. You've responded to the prompt with a thoughtful poem about self-imposed boundaries. For me, you address the tension of a relationship that has not moved into sexual expression, yet that is what drives it. The words 'we need each other' reverberate from this.
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We all have that special someone we know we want to keep as a friend rather than take it a step further on the risk it may all end badly. Kind of like an old flame that never was. Sometimes holding the stronger emotions in denial enables us to delve into a deeper understanding.
I know I have mine, I will direct her towards this.
Peace
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wow
Your approach to this was truely Magnificent! The emotion is wonderful. It makes you think and wonder.
Question what is going on behind the screen. In the mind to see what you see would be the best gift. This poem is everything I love about poetry. Thoughtful. Graceful. Meaningful. It has emotion that I haven't seen in years while not being the typical "i want to die, this life is bad."
Continue writing I will be watching. ^-^
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I like this. a good free verse, it has a flow to it. The emotion is there, and there are some pretty amazing lines like "feel fluids coming from each other's eyes". a good write.
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I like this a lot. It really makes you think about boundaries, and it puts a lot of things into perspective. Good luck in the contest =]
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This is a good reflection of the ideas in the inspiration, but it has its own ideas too, and they pose some questions that would be of great importance to those involved, ideas of limits, appearances; and the way we find things in some form...though not what we might choose; an acceptance. Very thoughtful...PK
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