The Healing ~ Romantic Love

My friend Jean Ann shared my poem ‘The Healing’ with two of her friends. Together they shared a bucket full of tears. What is it about romantic love that causes our hearts to sigh, our minds to soar and produces such strong emotions?

Here are two gifts that Jean Ann presented to her friends to wish them both well in their new-found relationships. I was just made privy to the fact that she will be reciting ‘The Healing’ at one woman’s wedding in early September. I know that if I was there I would be unable to hold back the water-works. Tears of Joy and Laughter are so confusing!!

 

 

I asked myself, would a poem about love have the same impact? No. Would a poem about a sexual encounter have the same impact? No. But write about romantic love and it is something everyone is able to relate to at the moment or at some point in their lives. If they can not relate – they wish they could…and that is the universal appeal of a vision of love making as opposed to an evening of sex.

Of all the poems in ‘5 Pillars of the Gypsy’ this is the one I have encountered the most feedback about. I would like to say that ‘sex’ sells, but as you will see as you read – It is not sex that ‘sells’ it is the implication of true love that feeds our human need – for intimacy, trust, pleasure, affection, warmth, understanding, shared vulnerability – All that romantic love implies delights our collective senses and feeds our souls.

I am deeply, deeply honoured that this poem in particular has had such a positive impact on those who have read it. Being somewhat reserved I felt a bit awkward with its inclusion in my book, but I feel now that its inclusion was vital and that my hesitations needless.

My best wishes go out to the happy couple who will include ‘The Healing’ in their wedding festivities. May their married life continue to be filled with life’s greatest moments and treasures forever. 

 

The Healing

My skin – it seems on fire with the feeling of your touch.

I swim in paradise sinking further in your kiss.

To lift the weight that held me once to another man

I look to you to bring out in me exactly who I am.

 

The stars are shining through the clouds; darkness in the wake.

The shivers felt so slightly are only from your touch.

The breath that leaves your lips is powerful and warm.

The lust that seeps our bodies is only what we long.

 

The moon, the sky seen from this spot are aphrodisiacs,

As though this coupling needed more…

I’m not so sure of that.

 

Oh, fantasy, it has come true upon the seaside now.

Your hands have touched the soul in me.

We’ve reached the here and now.

 

The dream it has no ending as it had no start.

It feels as though the man in you has entered in my heart.

The eyes that show me tenderness, so obvious you feel,

Has me knowing, after all, it’s possible to heal.

 

But healing souls is such a task no human should it lay.

I look to God for guidance in my judgment here today.

And God he looked upon me and said “Do what you will.”

 He understands past carnage versus pleasures now instilled.

 

And so it’s passed right back to this soulful human here

Who lies upon my body and erases all my fear.

 

Serious may not apply to this very moment

For no contracts are instilled.

Instead, we know, we’re certain.

 

Let the tide flow where it may,

Indulging in the flesh.

The language of the universe

Are words that suit it best.

 

Let the love that sways so freely be not the hurting kind,

But rather, love that’s meant to feed the body, soul and mind.

 

cc Lesley Fletcher 2012 – from 5 Pillars of the Gypsy – Art and Verse