Getting More Personal

So tonight, I'm feeling a little more daring, a little less in my head, and a little more willing to get to another point of having my own blog...sharing some of my own poems. As I write these lines, I have already chosen two older poems, and I am terrified to post them! David Whyte exhorts us to "Start close in,/ don't take the second step / or the third,/ start with the first thing close in, / the step you don't want to take." So I'll take my fear as a sign that this is the first step toward something, I'm not sure what, that I am headed toward.

A very little background on the mythology:  Aphrodite, goddess of Love and Desire, was never possessed by a lover, she always directed the show, came and went as she pleased, completely Herself. She was born from the foam on the surface of the ocean, the mixture of water and air. Athene, Goddess of Wisdom and Invention, was even more self-possessed, and as far as we know, never took a lover. However, she was a great friend and champion to many of the Greek heroes. These two are primary archetypes of my psyche..we go way back. Protean refers to Proteus, an ancient sea god who was a bit of a shapeshifter.

Beach Poem
So, I'm not Aphrodite rising from the sea
naked, self-sufficient and magnificent
after all
I'm just a woman
crying on the beach without poise or dignity
searching for evidence of my existence
among what is felt
beneath the churning sea foam
(tiny shells and whips of kelp)
and what is there
when the wave recedes
(the lonely leveled sand)

And you are just a man
with your own pain and uncertainties
holding on to me as I thrash about in the surf
asking fearfully
what do you feel beneath the foam?

And really, what can you say?
Language is not liquid
it does not flow over and around
what is mysterious and protean
It will define and crystalize
only what is present in a single moment

Somehow
in this single moment
it is enough to be held
with something unknown swirling around our feet
and I am joyfully earthbound
watching you slip through the sea in your neopreme sealskin
riding the oceanic surge like you were born there


Rebirth

Athene-like
I casually descend
Into the dark pool
Where you wait.
Boundaries of friendship and passion
Negotiated long before
Become fluid
As limbs casually float
Barely touching
Ah! The exquisite awareness of proximity!
In the foam--
In the immeasurable space
Between I and Thou--
Aphrodite is born again.