Recent circumstances have brought to my remembrance a poem I wrote on May 14, 2011. It’s called Presence. It was at the time the first “optimistic” poem I had written in over 15 years, and I wrote it during a powerfully transformative period. While I consciously wrote this piece about my former fiancee, in retrospect it’s clear that I was in fact unconsicously speaking of myself, specifically my inner feminine (anima) which had been externalized in the other through “projection.” It’s not that none of what is expressed here was true about the outer feminine, but the truth there (as far as it reached) was only a manifestation of the deeper, abiding truth concerning the inner feminine. I’m reminded here of the extent to which our conscious understanding of our present situation doesn’t quite penetrate the actual situation in its completeness, is only half the story at best. As I’ve explored in Dancing Lovers, if we should become conscious of how what attracts us to the external other is a reflection of an aspect of ourselves awaiting recognition and development, we would withdraw our projections and see the other more clearly for the person he or she is. Consequently, one’s love moves from fullness, not from perceived emptiness or incompleteness; love as a giver, not a taker. So I now dedicate this poem to Sarah (my anima) and to the other, outer feminine who will be loved with deeper clarity and self understanding. Selah.
The mid-day sun is silent,
Enlarged with adoration.
My beloved and I walk,
Hand in hand,
Footprints in the sand.
Face to Face – heart to heart,
Her words enter me.
They become my thoughts,
My innermost desire.
When I look into her eyes
I see myself more clearly.
When I look within myself
I find her there.
So when she’s gone
She still remains.
Inescapable presence,
Filling me with joy.
She smiles and I am embraced
By her longing soul.
She laughs and I am filled
With an inner peace.
Through her eyes I see the
Beauty of the world.
Two souls – one eye,
Ever moving, ever still
In this precious moment
Of passing time.
Time moves forward, but
Nothing is in the past.
Even the seasons merge into one,
Winter to Spring,
Summer to Autumn,
Ever present.
She is the new born freedom
Found within my soul,
When time is forever
And I am now complete.
Her kiss is on the wind
That blows against my face.
Her breath is on my words
When they pass through these lips.
She is the inner self
Lying hidden in the night.
Moment of surrender
Passage into light.
She is the gentleness
Carried by the clouds.
The raindrops that fall
As tears upon my face.
She is the love of God
Lodged within my heart.
I surrender myself
Totally, completely.
And when I think I can
Enter her no more deeply,
She passes into me.
Inescapable presence,
I melt away,
And we are one.
M.S.
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