The world is not a pleasant place to be
Without someone to Hold and be Held by.²
The love which us doth bind, but fate so enviously Debars—
Is the conjunction of the mind, and Opposition of the Stars.³
The Meant-to-be-Lovers Stay a lip’s width apart.⁴
Wide, wide river ‘twixt ma love an’ me—
Wide, wide river ‘twixt ma love an’ me—
I never knowed how wide a River can be.⁵
How like a Winter hath my Absence been—
What Freezings have I felt, what Dark days seen!
What old December’s Bareness everywhere!⁶
When you’re Alone, who cares for starlight skies?
When you’re Alone, the magic moonlight dies—at the
Break of dawn there is no sunrise, when your lover is Gone.⁷
I know why the north country is frozen: it has been trying
To preserve your memory—I know why the desert
Burns with fever: it has wept too long without you.⁸
I’d rather have the Want of you—
The rich, elusive Taunt of you,
Forever and forever and forever Unconfessed—
Than claim an alien comfort of any other breast.⁹
That our Love for each other give way
To Absence and the Unknown—
That we Endure absence, if need be,
Without losing our Love for each other,
Without closing our doors to the Unknown.¹⁰
¹ John Berger, And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos
² Nikki Giovanni, The World is Not a Pleasant Place to Be
³ Andrew Marvell, The Definition of Love
⁴ Lisa Olstein, Your Country Needs You
⁵ Langston Hughes, Wide River
⁶ William Shakespeare, Sonnet XCVII
⁷ Einer Aaron Swan, When Your Lover Has Gone
⁸ Henry Dumas, Love Song
⁹ Angela Morgan, Choice
¹⁰ Denise Levertov, Prayer For Revolutionary Love