Not Enough

Remi Raji

“oh reaper of my evening song,
how solitary dreams believe you to be mine!
You are mine, mine, I go shouting it to the afternoon’s
wind, and the wind hauls on my widowed voice”

From Pablo Neruda’s “In My Sky at Twilight”
itself a paraphrase of
the 30th poem in Rabindranath Tagore’s The Gardener.

I
in spite of poetry, a song is not enough for you

i wanted a song to trap the tenderness of that night
to remind you of the candle of dreams

i wanted a canvas of words, to paint
the first faint spell of your lion presence

when i recall the loud whispers, the quiet laughters ...
then, and now the dance of nerves, oh the magnetic glow

the soft understanding of unspoken words …
how i lack the brush to describe the substance of your skin & soul.

II
may i launch a planet of melodies, compose myths
touch the skylight, imagine you dance on my palm
will you remember the pollen promises of light
in spite of the void and the distance sure to come?

III
And like you, i shall be tranquil
for in this shy silence, i touch the currents of your breath
root, tributary, bank and a delta of dreams
you are river, i am river
and nerves like fire
but how eternal shall we burn
each to each …
knowing, burning heaving souls in search of names?

And in spite of metaphors, in spite of this poetry and that fire
a song can’t be enough for you … for you are the song.

LitNet: 26 July 2006

Click here to return to Remi Raji's index page.

Did you enjoy this poem? Have your say! Send your comments to webvoet@litnet.co.za, and become a part of our interactive opinion page. Or submit your own poetry to Michelle McGrane for consideration.

Click here to receive our newsletter - your weekly cultural fix! Check out what's sizzling on our newsletter this week

back    /     to the top

© Kopiereg in die ontwerp en inhoud van hierdie webruimte behoort aan LitNet, uitgesluit die kopiereg in bydraes wat berus by die outeurs wat sodanige bydraes verskaf. LitNet streef na die plasing van oorspronklike materiaal en na die oop en onbeperkte uitruil van idees en menings. Die menings van bydraers tot hierdie werftuiste is dus hul eie en weerspieël nie noodwendig die mening van die redaksie en bestuur van LitNet nie. LitNet kan ongelukkig ook nie waarborg dat hierdie diens ononderbroke of foutloos sal wees nie en gebruikers wat steun op inligting wat hier verskaf word, doen dit op hul eie risiko. Media24, M-Web, Ligitprops 3042 BK en die bestuur en redaksie van LitNet aanvaar derhalwe geen aanspreeklikheid vir enige regstreekse of onregstreekse verlies of skade wat uit sodanige bydraes of die verskaffing van hierdie diens spruit nie. LitNet is ’n onafhanklike joernaal op die Internet, en word as gesamentlike onderneming deur Ligitprops 3042 BK en Media24 bedryf.