My Soul in Search of Divine Romance

I looked in the river
& the river just kept
rolling on out to the sea.
I looked in the ocean
& the ocean was just
too big to see across.
I looked in many eyes
& saw nothing but the blues.
I looked in the sky
& the stars got caught
in my corneas.
I looked in a book
& the words just snaked
across the page.
I looked in men's hearts
& in women’s hearts
& saw bottomless
pits of darkness.

I listened to the wind
& heard not one word
that sounded
like a lover's confession,
so I listened to music
pounded out on a piano
flowing out of a guitar
& men's throats
& women's throats
& found no lovers.
I listened to liars
who made love as useful
as a moth-eaten sweater,
whose affection was just slick,
swollen meat shafts
& I pushed & pushed
until I realized
this is not love,
this is friction.

I stop listening today, now I will wait.
Only Thou knowst how to love me
but I don't yet know how to understand—
the mud of this world sticks to my thighs
& the slime of lovers’ tricks
for over half a century—

but today I renounce it all—
I will no longer look for Thee
in the disappointing automatons
who inhabit this world.
I will not listen to the tacky voices
that pollute the hallways of my ears.
Let them all grab & squabble
& grow fat & drunk
on the blood of desire.

I renounce it all—
I cut out my eyeballs,
& hack my eardrums to pieces,
& flay my skin,
& chop out my tongue,
& snuff out my nose,
because my soul has no need
to carry such baggage
traveling in search
of Divine Love.



Last edited by Linda Sue - Poet; 01/25/14 01:59 PM.

Blessings,
Linda Sue Grimes
Maya Shedd's Temple