Eros unwritten by Jeff Bien She was long, her back touched the stars I was young enough to know no word for starlight She spoke only song, How it blackened her skin. I could taste her nectar, It was in the pollinating of our eyes Nesting in a bramble of song The egg tooth of the shell of us. I knew too that unclothed, we were not yet naked And so must rend the garment In that frugality of touch Ripened, immortal as gods, we grew. In the youth that has no end An asterisk of light, I parried there Exhausting the hours we dream of And later, rusted like sword-fallen weathers. And in the crawlspace, grace notes of stillness Echoes of silence blared as we drowned in our sound If I knew then how many hands and eyes, and fingertips Abound in so much beauty, in the archetype of a single touch. And how immutable the sublime dance of infinity reigns Would I have counted backwards on the abacus of One The way stars breathe, in the Milky Way, like her skin painting me So perfectly white, that the blackness in my blood grew, one breath.
Hear Jeff Bien recite the poem on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast:
Six Poems / Five Poets (Richard Evans / Dana Kinsey / Jeff Bien / Eliza Sible / Erika B. Girard) – Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast
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Jeff Bien is an internationally acclaimed poet, musician, and widely regarded teacher of consciousness and meditation, whose work has been published, translated, and performed in more than sixty countries. He was recently short-listed for the Montreal International Poetry Award, and Writer of the Year Award (Antigonish Review), as well as being published in numerous journals. A short documentary on his life’s work will be released in the spring by a filmographer, from the University in Cardiff, Wales. Two new collections, ‘One Hundred Seconds Before Midnight’ and ‘The Archaeological Digest of Names’ are forthcoming, as well as a lifetime’s work on consciousness.
