brian patten

And heart is daft

Without understanding any pain but that
Which inside her anyway is made,
This creature singled out creates
Havoc with intelligence. And heart is daft,
Is some crazy bird let loose and blind
That slaps against the night and has
Never anywhere to go. And when a tongue’s
About to speak some nonsense like
‘Love is weak, or blind, or both’, then comes
this crazy bird, pecks at it like a worm.

brian patten

When into sudden beds

When through absence into sudden beds
You fall to ward
Off darkness and to share
For habit’s sake some human warmth

If who is now gone in dream returns
To ignite some loss and make
The hand that reaches seem
Blind, ignorant of your suffering,

Then, with a larger sympathy than you once owned,
Must you now turn, else all dark is yours
And beds, forever blind,
Will make within them wars.

Whatever’s touched, shoulder, thigh or breast,
With some uncommon pain will burn
When for love you’re asked to pay in kind,
And find you are not strong enough to turn.

brian patten

The innocence of any flesh sleeping

Sleeping beside you I dreamt
I woke beside you;
Waking beside you
I thought I was dreaming

Have you ever slept beside an ocean
Well yes,
It is like this

The whole motion of landscapes, of oceans
Is within her.
She is
The innocence of any flesh sleeping,
So vulnerable
No protection is needed.

In such times
The heart opens,
Contains all there is,
There being no more than her.

In what country she is
I cannot tell
But knowing –
Because there is love
And it blots out all demons –
She is safe,
I can turn,
Sleep well beside her.

Waking beside her I am dreaming.
Dreaming of such wakings
I am to all love’s senses woken.