(Hiroshi Sugimoto)
I was reading Courtenay Bluebird’s blog and I came across a beautiful poem she wrote called Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bluebird, an homage to Wallace Stevens, or what CB calls an “English-to-English translation.” I loved it so much I decided to try my own, after a poem by Theodore Roethke called The Waking. So here’s my poem, which I dedicate to my husband J.
The Loving (That Old Dance)
*
I love to love you, love the love itself.
I hold you closest when you’re far away.
I teach my heart to do it every day.
*
I feel by thinking. How can heart make sense?
It pulses in my head, it shows the way.
I love to love you, love the love itself.
*
The day’s so old and lonely. Where are you?
Thank god it’s bedtime, I will find you there.
And teach my body how to love anew.
*
Married twenty years. How does this happen?
When nature plots against us every day.
I love to love you, love the love itself.
*
Hold tight, my love. Hold on for our dear life.
Let’s dance as if it was our wedding day.
And teach our hearts to hold a steady pace.
*
This thinking keeps me dancing. I must say
I know you are the smartest thing I’ve done.
I love to love you, love the love itself.
I teach my heart to do it every day.
*
Thank you CB for the inspiration today! I encourage everyone to try one of these “translations.” If you do, please drop a note in the comments so I can go check yours out.
girl in the hat 
Fills my heart : )
Yay!
This poem is a declaration of love after twenty years!
This is wonderful and you are right and Love from the heart learns to our brain and our senses to love even in the distance! Love is Life and Life is Love!
Here in France many couples organize ceremonies to celebrate twenty, thirty, forty and fifty years and more. This is a suggestion 🙂
A party is an excellent idea. I’ll wear hot pink. *wink*
I love it— so much! AF, you’ve done a brilliant job of winding your way through both the form and the content. It’s terribly difficult to do love poems without slipping into cliché— yet, you’ve done it! Poetry is one of your languages, AF! I want more! (And thanks for mentioning my own English-to-English translation— thank you so much!)
Thanks again for your inspiration, CB. It was frustrating to have to follow someone else but interesting at the same time to see where it took me.
“I teach my heart to do it every day.” My favorite line, Anna — a truth that’s hard to teach.
So hard! Mind over matter, in a way.
What a lovely poem. The lines I love the most are these two:
I hold you closest when you’re far away.
We feel by thinking. How can heart make sense?
I liked those lines, too.
this made me cry
If I say yay, does that make me a sadist?