Eros unwritten by Jeff Bien


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

Submit your polished poetry for the opportunity of being published on ViewlessWings.com and being interviewed on The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.

Jeff Bien

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.

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