This vivid poem by the Poet Laureate Esther Phillips is both teeming with striking imagery and deeply moving.
I love that it is sensitively written showing her understanding of our underlying needs. It is like a picture of a soul’s craving, unashamedly expressing both love and a desire to heal. Yet it is piqued with a hope unfounded and the eternal longing for the other:
“This wanting is not a nebulous thing;
it is the soul desiring its other self…” this perhaps is its theme.
–And Yet Again
Tonight I want to offer you
this moonlight cupped in a purple
flower; this chorus of crickets
holding no grudge against the day’s
dying. I want to lift the cool sweetness
of sour-grass under the night wind
and soothe the tautness in your face.
I want to tempt you away from your heroic
silence for joy that is free and foolish.
I want to weave these early stars
like a rope for you to hold
and make your way past your old
hurts, faiths crumbling like dust.
This wanting is not a nebulous thing;
it is the soul desiring its other self
where need knows no hindrance of words.
Now, only this longing, this reaching
yet again – in spite of.
![](https://beautifulbarbadosblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/esther-phillips_1.jpg)
The poem touches me with its melancholy – and yet it is strangely soothing – like a warm glove around the heart. 🙂
What do you think?
A Spanish Translation
Esta noche quiero ofrecerte
esta luz de luna acunada en una
flor morada; este coro de grillos
sin rencor hacia la muerte del día.
Quiero alzar la frescura fresca
del trébol bajo el viento nocturno
y calmar la tensión en tu rostro.
Quiero tentarte lejos de tu heroico
silencio por la alegría que es libre y absurda.
Quiero tejer estas estrellas tempranas
como una cuerda para que la sostengas
y puedas avanzar más allá de tus viejas
heridas, fe desmoronándose como polvo.
Este deseo no es algo nebuloso;
es el alma deseando su otro yo
donde la necesidad no conoce impedimentos de palabras.
Ahora, solo este anhelo, esta búsqueda
una vez más, a pesar de.
A universal poem, it was Barbados’ entry in The Written World a collaboration between the Scottish Poetry Library and BBC Radio to broadcast a poem from every nation in the London 2012 Olympics. It is from her work, The Stone Gatherer, Peepal Tree Press, 2009.
Beautiful poem! I want to lift the cool sweetness 💕 well shared
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Thank you Priti. Her choice of imagery is so sensually evocative, giving this poem a deep yet soft emotional current. Can you feel the pain? Can you feel the tremulous love? 💘
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