new life

I go pale here
you come constantly
into my mind/I
watch you move
wherever I go/your
voice repeats
my words/I see your
long cool legs
walk close/I vaseline
my lips with you/you
keep my soul repaired/I
go pale here/the static
air comes lightening
your hands/trace my neck
my body hums outloud/
do you sleep now?
do you dream of me?
can I keep your fine
soft hours in my hands?
do you know how much
new life you mean
to me?


A poem from January of 1973, while I was still living with Becky McGovern before she threw me out on Valentine's Day for writing poems like this to Pat Smith. My friend Marion who is at ISU this semester asked me a while back why all my love poems were so dark. Here is a poem, from a series of poems, where the love, the passion, is the basic theme. I always fall very hard. I truly loved this person and thought she would always love me. That turned out to be one of those things people like to believe but isn's actually true. Life goes on.

Notes: Pat used vaseline to moisten her lips pretty much constantly. We also used it as a general lubricant. The use of the word "pale" comes from the Velvet Underground. Lou Reed and John Cale were both major sources for me in the 1970s. I still respect them both, though I haven't listened to them in some years.