Let there be snow

My beloved tucks her hair under a pillow of smiles

Let there be snow

My beloved sleeps in the open like a morning star

Let there be snow

My beloved shields the olive tree where the Master knelt to pray

Let there be snow

My beloved tames the wind – a blue river in her gaze

Let there be snow

My beloved skips down from her dream barefoot

Let there be thunder

Let there be flood

Let there be hurricane

My beloved alights from the peaks of my soul

First published in Australian Love Poems

‘Untitled’ by ©Samer Halwany Photography.

9 thoughts on “Let there be snow”

I meant to say, it reminds me, this poem, also, of Emily Dickinson’s poem: “Wild nights, wild nights/ Were I with thee/ Wild nights should be/ Our luxury” Lovely poem, fresh as new snow, old as the hills…

jadelhage says:

April 15, 2015 at 12:15 pm

When a wordsmith is stuck for words; a singer’s voice disappears as soon as she opens her mouth; a dancer stumbles and falls on stage, the world turns into dust in their eyes. They die in those moments. But if the wordsmith speaks his mind; the singer sings her song, and the dancer dances his heart out, then one honest hand salutes their offerings, the gods nod and smile in heaven. Thank you Mark. Bless your hands. jad.

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I first read this poem among the 1500 submitted anonymously for Australian Love Poems, and it fell up off the page like a mad and insistent blizzard. It struck me as an almost perfect contemporary instance of a poem in the ecstatic tradition, associated in my mind mostly with poets in the Sufi tradition, and at the same time reminiscent of “The Song of Songs”. It configures the lover as The Beloved—a human lover, yes, most sensuously; but also as that which is divine, that which we long for as if it were the rest of who we had meant to become, in everything. The poem so struck me, so drifted and refined me, that later I wrote a poem “Let There Be Rain” for my Beloved, “after Jad El Hage”, a poem since published by Zeina in these pages. Thank you for the poem, Jad, and thank you, Zeina, for letting the Beloved fall again, like a longed for, born again, love-lorn storm. Mark

Poem and Dish says:

April 15, 2015 at 12:05 am

Thank you dearest Mark. Your words just drifted me to another realm. It is I who is grateful for being able to publish the work of such wonderful poets such as yourself, Jad and the many great poets featured on my humble page.

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