One who has loved

One who has loved is never quite alone,
though all the hills declare our solitude.
Having known you, I am no more afraid,
the essential singleness of blood and bone
when dispossessed, comes never in return;
one who has loved is never quite alone.

(To R.A.C.)

It’s not what happens that decides our end;
it’s how the heart takes hold of it and makes
an open wound of pain, or wisdom’s scar.
What my heart makes of this, the days will tell.
Therefore return in some safe-distanced year
to see if I am invalid and lame
or scarred but otherwise quite wise and well.
But do not look to find me quite the same.

Now that my love has come

Now that my love has come I see the reason;
now I answer its demand;
it was here always just beyond my vision
waiting for your lifted hand.

It has the width of sea, the depth of shadow;
it holds the storm wind wild and strong,
and light drawn thin to stars in the sweep of heaven
and the prow’s clear water-cleaving song.

Between us lie the waters

Between us lie the waters, dark and still;
for all our love, the sea will lie between;
for all our passion, which will surge and fill
the heart to breaking; and for all the cleanstripped
honest words of truth we speak;
still will those level depths, unchanged, serene,
deny us the last union which we seek;
and in the end we must accept despair,
knowing that what we breathe is mortal air.

These poems and others by Jane Clement can be found in her anthology, No One Can Stem The Tide.