Our meeting in the summer gardens,
Dry grass, wind-ruffled blouse,
Wind-ruffled face and hair
Like love’s fingers; quiet talk:
Friends; parents; seeking the way
And seeking guidance; failure;
Love; silence and summer air
And birds soaring, singing
Brother, sister, kiss farewell.
Precious meeting, gentle, unhurried,
But each demanded of themselves
To open the shutters of the tower
And through the eyes’ windows
To enter where ourselves we hardly dare,
Desiring to let in light,
Desiring and refusing,
These two, always,
But love can reconcile
And I may comprehend
The darkness and the light.
Take care, beloved,
The next scene beckons,
We must strip ourselves bare
And begin anew.
Tilo Ulbricht
Image: Eastnor Castle by John Piper