Tender love destined for light divine,
Tender mine for sake and bonded there;
Again once bonded, futile is the past hence,
Justly wraps in silk fingers soft and warm;
Never part once I sow the veins our hearts desire,
May blood fare none the lesser spilt, alas;
Be mine in God’s arms but never thrown among,
For lost am I in eyes thine can never whisper Him;
Lives in the flesh thine ephemeral but longer waits,
Dines in fruit bind the string that snap ere rolls;
Her saplings own that dares the sweetest glow,
Bring me a paradise once a few mine eyes behold;
Sings again but no words spoken none but sighs phewed,
But gestures slightly at mine hair with words only few;
Delivers the first among many an embrace for kiss the first,
Adjusts the face upon mine once it tough, dainty so the hue;
Unlock the chasms heart thine, the flag hoisted only mounts,
Bear soil mine yet so fertile for breath mine shall sound;
For he gives all for none but take and saps all the broke,
Frees thy soul a wondrous took yet the key still placed;
Locksmith never removed the hotly iron key smelted in lock,
But shall with heart of mine remove to reveal the box refused;
‘Tis man’s own folly to bottle his feeligs and in him absorb,
‘Tis woman’s own folly for uncapping the bottle whilst breaking;
Let no man make a secret lest his life be the secret,
Let no woman contain the secret lest she dwindles in it;
Alas, locked and never be found; once our parts be made,
Ere resolved but first of many whilst He signs the writ ere fade.
This poem is written in two-part counterpoint. There are two narratives in unison. Although we read line by line, try to read both lines simultaneously.
Influenced by Tendre Amour, an aria from Les Indes Galantes by the 18th century French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau.