LOVE … because of it
The series – Love … Because of It – will illustrate Vincent and Catherine’s more intimate time together, measured in a romantic (gauzy but not overly graphic) way,
accompanied by a favored poem.
(These will be private moments, so scroll on with that awareness!)
The series – Love, Because of It – will illustrate Vincent and Catherine’s more intimate time together, measured in a romantic (gauzy but not overly graphic) way, accompanied by a favored poem.
(These will be private moments, so scroll on with that awareness!)
TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL
by Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage,
exiles from delight,
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies,
old memories of pleasure,
ancient histories of pain.
Yet, if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity.
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave.
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
Only Love
EAST OF EDEN
an ecerpt
by John Steinbeck
A kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color.
And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to.
And there were no limits to anything.
And the people of the world were good and handsome.
And I was not afraid any more.
Fireside in Connecticut
THE SHIRT
by Jane Kenyon
The shirt touches his neck
and smooths over his back.
It slides down his sides.
It even goes down below his belt—
down into his pants.
Lucky shirt.
Home Early
FLIRTATION
by Rita Dove
After all, there’s no need
to say anything
at first. An orange, peeled
and quartered, flares
like a tulip on a wedgewood plate
Anything can happen.
Outside the sun
has rolled up her rugs
and night strewn salt
across the sky. My heart
is humming a tune
I haven’t heard in years!
Quiet’s cool flesh—
let’s sniff and eat it.
There are ways
to make of the moment
a topiary
so the pleasure’s in
walking through.
She Sleeps
HOW ABOUT SILENCE
by Wendy Brown-Báez
What if we had no words?
What if the only way we could speak was with the
Expression in our eyes, arch of the eyebrow
Fingers touching
What if you came to me moving in silence
And laid beside me
With roses
What if I held your face in my hands
Like a crystal ball
Seeing the child in you, foreseeing the old man
Appreciating the fine lines
Forming around your eyes
While noting the twinkle
What if I gave myself into your hands
And there were no words to
Distract us
What if each touch was slow and distinct
If each breath formed a hum
A melody, a rhythm
And in the spaces between, only silence
What if we woke up creating patterns
Diagrams, scattered beams of light with our
Hands our legs our backs
Our breath
What if we used taste to tell each other
How much we love, how much we desire
How much we can not, how much we will
What if we swallowed truth like a holy wafer
Made from what we can know
With our blood our salt
Our bones
What if we no longer were capable of argument
Or misunderstandings
And we could only hear the way our bodies move
Toward each other and away
Like waves on a beach
Like buds opening to day
And folding at night
Like the spin of galaxies
And the journey of the moon
What if we ran out of words
What if we were unafraid to be completely silent?
In Silence and Candlelight
FOR EROS
by John O’Donohue
from To Bless the Space Between Us
~ A book of Blessings ~
When you love,
May you feel the joy
Of your heart coming alive
As your lover’s gaze
Lands on your eyes
Holding them,
Like the weight of a kiss,
Deepening.
May the words of love
Reach you and fluster
Your held self,
The way a silhouette of breeze
Excites a meadow.
When you are touched,
May it be the gentleness
You desire,
Your lover’s hands sending
Each caress deep into your skin
Like a discovering glance.
May slow sequences
Of kisses discover
Your secret echoes.
May your desire flow free
And never be fettered
By the thorn-chains
Of old guilt
Or crippled touch.
May you feel
How your soul loves
When your skin glows,
And your eyes darken
When promise ripens.
In the gaze of your lover,
May you see clearer
In the mirror
Of your own being.
May the silences
Be spaces where you
Can gather swiftly,
At ease with all
The subtle complexity.
May you be able to listen
To your lover’s heartbeat
And thing only of the joy
You can awaken.
May you be able
Tolet yourself fall
Into the ocean rhythm,
Unfolding ever more
Until you become
One crest of wave,
Rising into wild foam
whose beauty will show
In the graceful sweep
Of its home-breaking.
Breaking in the New Sofa!
I Had No Idea
by Tyler Knott Gregson
I had no idea
it would be
this much.
I had no idea
I could handle it.
I had no idea
how beautiful
it all
actually
is.
Love After Love
I Like My Body
by e e cummings
i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh . . . . And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly I like the thrill
of under me you so quite new
Subtle Electric Fire
Echo
by Carol Ann Duffy
I think I was searching for treasures or stones
in the clearest of pools
when your face…
when your face,
like the moon in a well
where I might wish…
might well wish
for the iced fire of your kiss;
only on water my lips, where your face…
where your face was reflected, lovely,
not really there when I turned
to look behind at the emptying air…
the emptying air.
Fireworks
I Would Sleep
by Tyler Knott Gregson
I would sleep with the thought of you,
with the silhouette
of a single memory, with the scent
left hours after you’ve touched me.
I would lose myself in the folds
of your dress, the fabric
of the shirt you wore when you
fell asleep leaned against
my shoulder. Paint me
in the soft focus fog of your
tenderness, pull me from
myself.
There’s a fire
fragment 38
by Sappho (6th century BCE)
you burn me
At the Touch of You
by Witter Bynner
At the touch of you,
As if you were an archer with your swift hand at the bow,
The arrows of delight shot through my body.
You were spring,
And I the edge of a cliff,
And a shining waterfall rushed over me.
I Would Love To Say
by Tyler Knott Gregson
I would love to say
that you
make me
weak in the knees,
but
to be quite upfront
and completely
truthful,
you make my body forget
it has knees
at all.
I Have Found What You Are Like
by e e cummings
(excerpted)
And the coolness of your smile is
stirringofbirds between my arms;but
i should rather than anything
have(almost when hugeness will shut
quietly)almost,
your kiss
O BEST OF ALL NIGHTS,
RETURN AND RETURN AGAIN
by James Laughlin
How she let her long hair down over her shoulders, making a love cave around her face. Return and return again.
How when the lamplight was lowered she pressed against him, twining her fingers in his. Return and return again.
How their legs swam together like dolphins and their toes played like little tunnies. Return and return again.
How she sat beside him cross-legged, telling him stories of her childhood. Return and return again.
How she closed her eyes when his were open, how they breathed together, breathing each other. Return and return again.
How they fell into slumber, their bodies curled together like two spoons. Return and return again.
How they went together to Otherwhere, the fairest land they had ever seen. Return and return again.
O best of all nights, return and return again.
It Is Here
by Harold Pinter
What sound was that?
I turn away, into the shaking room.
What was that sound that came in on the dark?
What is this maze of light it leaves us in?
What is this stance we take,
To turn away and then turn back?
What did we hear?
It was the breath we took when we first met.
Listen. It is here.
Assurance
by Emma Lazarus
Last night I slept, and when I woke her kiss
Still floated on my lips. For we had strayed
Together in my dream, through some dim glade,
Where the shy moonbeams scarce dared light our bliss.
The air was dank with dew, between the trees,
The hidden glow-worms kindled and were spent.
Cheek pressed to cheek, the cool, the hot night-breeze
Mingled our hair, our breath, and came and went,
As sporting with our passion. Low and deep
Spake in mine ear her voice: “And didst thou dream,
This could be buried? This could be sleep?
And love be thrall to death! Nay, whatso seem,
Have faith, dear heart; this is the thing that is!”
Thereon I woke, and on my lips her kiss.
Tie Your Heart at Night to Mine
by Pablo Neruda
Tie your heart at night to mine, love,
and both will defeat the darkness
like twin drums beating in the forest
against the heavy wall of wet leaves.
Night crossing: black coal of dream
that cuts the thread of earthly orbs
with the punctuality of a headlong train
that pulls cold stone and shadow endlessly.
Love, because of it, tie me to a purer movement,
to the grip on life that beats in your breast,
with the wings of a submerged swan,
So that our dream might reply
to the sky’s questioning stars
with one key, one door closed to shadow.
GOOD TO READ
Fan Fiction Sites
ON THESE WALLS
Fan Art Sites
Love all of this!!! Thanks for sharing your talent!
Thank you, Deb! I’m so glad to know you visited and really happy to hear you liked the project.Happy Winterfest!
Carole
What a wonderful Winterfest gift to all of us! Thank you for letting us into this beautiful world!
Thank you, Linda! I’m sorry I’m just now replying a year-plus late! I had to have seen your post at its appearance, but the bustle of Winterfest must have distracted me.
These images are always fun, if challenging artistically, to create (I think of Jamie Murray’s example, his painting “Needs More Hair”, in the back of my mind throughout the process). But I do enjoy imagining their dreams fully realized. And searching out just the right poetry is a wonderful pastime, as I know you know. :-) Sometimes the image comes first, sometimes the poem and both can take days! But … days of heaven (and distraction from the occasional writer’s block or frustration, LOL)
Thanks again, for visiting and for letting me know you enjoyed it.
Hugs!
Carole these are fantastic pieces of art that shows the true talents that speaks to my heart. The art that you accomplished is pretty dang good! It has been a long time since I have sat and drawn for the sake of entertaining my own abilities, so maybe you are fueling a spark that I still need to see what I can do. Many years ago my brother and I won first (my brother) and second (me) in a county wide art contest held by the schools. I was in the third grade he was in the fourth . . . a very long time ago.
Thank you so much for visiting and for your kind words! I’m really glad you liked these creations – I’m encouraged to keep working.
I hope you’ll get back into art. I’m betting it will make you really happy. I hope you’ll share your work!
Please come back again. My best,
Carole
Carole! I’m breathless! This gift of yours is so, so beautiful. I tried to remember the art I liked best but, seeing the next, I found I couldn’t choose from among them all. And the poetry … I’m sad to realize I’ve lived my life having never before read words so .. spiritually …expressive of love’s mystery.
If I could, I would do a wall in my house displaying this artistic presentation.
It’s lovely, perfect, delicate, genuine … thank you, dear Friend.
Nancy, thank you! This reply is so late in coming – I only saw the notice of your message today, 6 months past your leaving it. I apologize sincerely!
I’m always grateful to you for your encouragement and again, I am today for your finding beauty in these images. The poetry … some people just give us all the right words, don’t they. I’m in awe of these poets. They understand, know, recognize love and because they do, we can too.
I feel the same awe when I read your poetry. Your words are chosen with such crystaline clarity. Maybe … I could use some of yours for this page one Winterfest …??? :-)