My First Poetry Book Vol. 2: Love Poems (2000-2001)

Vespers #5: Drawings by Erica Lowe

  
       “I'm a poet
       before I'm
       a lover
       before anything
       else,” I said
       and Tim
       driving a spot
       said
       “Jesus, I'd hate
       to be your
       lover.”
 

 
       I wrote long
       before I
       fell in
       love

       if I ever
       stopped loving
       or being loved
       I'd write about that
       or the birds
       but if I stopped
       writing I doubt
       I'd be much of
       a lover
       I'd have no way
       of knowing
       what love
       is—
 

 
       while the rain
       that was coming
       came
       like sweat
       on brows
       and tired
       bodies,
       I'm nothing
       but peaceful
       lying here
       sharing
       a cigarette

       love unblocks
       us
       leaving traces
       of inspiration
       as subtle
       as a city
       clear of its denizens,
       a sky cleared
       of its
       veil—
 

 
       the sheep are frozen
       and the horses
       too
       their heads down
       trimming the
       earth
       sinister
       and
       prophetic

       I imagine
       us naked in
       the shadowgreen
       roadside
       and my cigarette burns
       out
       and the wind
       bites
       as the sun
       falls
       thru
       blue
       cloud
       13km from Bulls
 

 
       kissing on a street
       corner

       in the broken
       courtyard
       where vines weave
       thru brick
       and dirt,
       the sounds
       of everything
       passing
       us by
       on a mid
       winters after
       noon

       black dog sits
       nose in plant
  
       sun & cool air,
       birds

       you asleep
       on the floor
       naked

       exhausted
       & regal
  

  
       did you ever wonder
       what you mean to me?
       just think:
       dark sunlit
       streets stretching
       words
       until
       dawn,

       you wouldn't let
       me sleep the night
       I left
       south . . .
  

 
              Poems by Dick Whyte.

                     Drawings by Erica Lowe.
  

Vespers

Poems by Dick Whyte, and other miscellanea. Explore the archive . . .