with each breath and kiss

I've only very recently (properly) discovered the poetry of Michael Symmons Roberts ...

... and I'd highly recommend this (2016) Selected Poems volume - here's one of my favourites from within:


Soul Song

The countless pinprick points of light
that make us human also map us,
so if I looked at you in love, complete

in utter darkness, I would see
a swarm of fireflies, carriers
of every half-formed thought, your history,

and with each breath and kiss
your filigree of sparks would cloud
and cross with mine, except of course

no room is ever night enough, no dark
can be so utter as to let us see this.
But feel the hairs lift on your neck,

that static charge, and know that we
have met our souls, invisible but physical,
akin to gale force, thunder, gravity.

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Michael Symmons Roberts (1963 - )

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