Copyright © 2009 Ernest Bloom.
Your soul shimmers, lustrous and polished, like a
Pearl hidden inside a dull silver-gray oyster's tender flesh,
Singing softly to me from a wide and wild sea beneath
The swinging orange harvest moon. I did not come
Seeking you like a deep sea diver or mean treasure hunter.
That's not the way of it at all. You call to me and
Stir me from my deepest slumber when Hypnos
Hunts me with murderous zeal and intent and I,
In this realm of in-between, one foot in waking and
One in dream, am lulled and relieved in the knowledge
Of your magic glistening light somewhere out there,
Slow-burning, glowing, somewhere, milky blue-white
Radiance, gentle. I'm better for having met you in this
Strange and undulating phantasm-crowded vision called life.
Beautiful beyond description. I've read like three love poems today of yours and each one's been better but this is quite utterly stunning. And love is of course only one of the possible interpretations. The pearl can be everything, it can be enlightenment, purity, light, reality, truth- it's one of the most powerful symbols humanity has conceived. This is actually an interesting thing because you can look at this from various angles and see a different poem entirely every time. Hell, this could well be a zealous religious poem in the manner of George Herbert, not that I intend to keep my eyes in this position very long. But really, the images clicked in immediately. The sea, the pearl, the flesh, the purity, the colors, the distance, the divers, the light! God, I was in a differing universe of spiritual upheaval for a moment.
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