There must be more poetic ways
Than this—
To beg permission to lay
My cheek on your shoulder
And rest.
I won’t kiss you. It might get to be a habit and I can’t get rid of habits.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flappers and Philosophers
Be gentle with my words
Cradle them softly on your tongue
As they pass from your eyes
Into your body
The weight of them may
Not seem much
Their worth no greater than
Other better known combinations
Of letters and sentiment
But they are a piece of me
So have a care with how you
Pass them about—
It isn’t kind to be so cavalier
With a girl’s poetry.
the savage resonance
of thunder,
the gentle tremble inside
hollow spaces
you’ve left.
I wish I could show you,
when you are lonely or in darkness,
the astonishing light of your own being.
— Hafiz
And this is where
you want to live
forever—to grow so
transparent, so fragile,
even the weight of the sea
cannot crush you.
— William Greenway, from “Drinking Like a Fish”
I once had a thousand desires,
But in my one desire to know you
all else melted away.
— Rumi
