Poems & poèmes/How Write the Beat of Love

by Natalie Clifford Barney

 

HOW WRITE THE BEAT OF LOVE

How write the beat of love, the very throb,
The rhythm of our veins' deep eloquence?
How fix that darkness-rending final sob,
That perfect swoon of each united sense.

The full-sailed rising of your body's sweep
—Adrift and safe on joy's last tidal wave—
Will toss you on the silver sands of sleep,
Forgetful of the ecstacy you gave.

Your breath ebbs restful as the falling tide:
A sea becalmed! . . Lay me in valleyed part
Of breasts whose undulating crests subside—
Ah how they marked the high beats of your heart!