Artwalk POETRY and ART

CROSSING OVER

The water is wide, I can't cross over
And neither have I wings to fly
Give me a boat that can carry two
And we shall sail, my love and I
- The Water is Wide, folk song dating back to 1600's

Between us everything.
Like stars in indigo low
over a nocturnal sea. Blue
into deeper blue, the distance between
what we've found
and what we have lost.
The water is wide, I can't cross over.

The child I surrendered at birth,
you return, blood without history.
We move forward and back - familiar,
tentative as water
eddying among the shore-bound rocks,
casting itself out.
And neither have I wings to fly.

In this shared darkness
we are the other's eyes. Longing
like sudden wood
ablaze in the drifting black
burning, the need to hold on,
hold back.
Give me a boat that can carry two.

Sea and sky crossing over; love
is more a question of stars,
refractions of light
than all of the darkness
emptied. A slow luminescence
into morning.
And we shall sail, my love and I.