There is a chasm between two souls
deeper than the deepest ocean rift
and more full of watered mystery
To have given birth is not enough
To have carried and nursed is not enough
To love with this whole fractured being is not enough
We have a deeper communion, perhaps
with Other than with each other
That knowledge is not enough
I’ve often dreamt of your drowning
torn from my arms and lost in black water
It is the deep calling to the depths in us
Shall we take the plunge? Shall we sink ourselves
to the very floor of the abyss—abandon all
claim to one another and therein find our kinship?
*9 May 2015…A year since I wrote this, I’m realizing it’s a Mother’s Day poem of sorts…
Inspired by We Drink Because We’re Poets Prompt #9: Write a poem inspired by a Latin proverb. I was interested to find that there are at least two interpretations of this one, “deep calls to deep” (taken straight from the Latin Vulgate translation of Psalm 42) and “hell calls to hell” (meaning, loosely, that one bad thing leads to another). I’ll have to prefer the first sense.
I love a good poem blog. I also prefer the first interpretation of hell calls to hell. Interesting phrase, interesting.
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I love the sound of a good Latin phrase–makes me feel sophisticated 🙂
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Nice! I really like this. Great job!
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Thank you!
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Oh WOW–I love the poem, and then I read the note about “hell calls to hell”–very scary (been there).
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I was so fascinated by the seemingly divergent meanings of the quote. After writing through the poem, I think maybe the meanings are not as different than the two English translations would appear. Woo, how is that for philosophy? (Guess I wrote the poem because I don’t know how else to say or even know what I mean.)
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Oh, you’re a treasure and a delight.
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