"Love's Reincarnation"
(A Sestina)
By Daniel Kelley
The warmth of our bodies these fields have known.
And to our secret trysts these hills are privy.
Upon flitting sparrow-wings our sighs have flown.
Our whispered vows were sestinas rendered pithy.
From that to this we have together grown.
Yes! I was there and you were with me.
Come into the garden and again dance with me.
The stars court the moon. Ah! the moon we have known.
With just one kiss you have rendered sestinas pithy.
Into the net of your eye-lashes my heart has flown.
To the secrets of my heart only your eyes are privy.
In the blush of your cheeks my confessions have grown.
Let health now cast down what in sickness has grown.
Love lead me to water. Love bathe in it with me.
Fathom to fathom, let the depths be known!
Let our voices converge into a single note pithy.
Let us vibrate until our song has to the ears of God flown.
Yes! the ears of heaven should be the only ears privy.
For the Rock of the Wise should be to the wise privy.
It is the rock upon which love's cathedral has grown.
So strike hard the bell! Sing along with me!
Join in the song that is by all true lovers known!
Life is a chorus, a sestina rendered pithy.
To every corner of the earth our love-song has flown.
Look! The doves mark with feathers the route we have flown.
They share with us secrets to which the ravens are not privy.
Such purity those darkling-birds have not known.
Yet with the doves I take flight. Come fly away with me!
In the desert awaits an oasis fully grown.
Where Aesop's fables are in one grain of sand pithy.
I love how you question my answers with riddles pithy.
How your eyes bear the strength of banners proudly flown.
How to your spells and your charms you have made me privy.
How with ashes for soil you have still so stately grown.
How you make room for two so that you can grow with me.
I love how you share with me all you have known.
All this we have known of three words rendered pithy.
In the privy of Time where our two souls have flown.
Our bodies have grown to repeat what our souls have always known.