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    AC Benus
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Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The Ultimate Vehicle of Earthly Bliss - 4. My most darkly hidden secret

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Zuweilen liegt die Nacht auf mir

Deckt mich mit schwesterlichem Haar

Und ist so schwer und sonderbar

Und gibt mir ihre Zärtlichkeit.

 

Und meine Lippen heben sich

Und flüstern in ihr dichtes Haar

Meine dunkelste Heimlichkeit:

Ich bin zu neuen Schmerzen bereit. [i]

 

 ---------------------------------

 

At times the night lies beside me

To wrap me in sisterly hair

And though heavy and curious

She yet gives me her tenderness.

 

So then I lift my lips to her

To whisper into her lush strands

My most darkly hidden secret:

That I’m ready for fresh torment.

 

 

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[i] “Zuweilen liegt die Nacht auf mir” Toni Schwabe Komm kühle Nacht: Verse [“Come, Cool Night: Verse”] (Munich 1908), p. 69

https://archive.org/details/3476447/page/68/mode/2up

 _

Copyright © 2024 AC Benus; All Rights Reserved.
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Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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This poem weaves a connection between us and our darkness, our shadows and that which tears at our being. We are inseparable from them; they are part of us, and no less natural for being so. At least, that’s how I received these words. 

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Well said, @Parker Owens.  Also, it seems to me @AC Benus, that no matter how "in tune" two persons may be, there will at times be conflict -- sometimes with each other. but sometimes with the two versus the world.  But it can be faced, and solved.

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On 2/7/2024 at 5:09 PM, Parker Owens said:

This poem weaves a connection between us and our darkness, our shadows and that which tears at our being. We are inseparable from them; they are part of us, and no less natural for being so. At least, that’s how I received these words. 

Thank you, Parker. It seems many Queer poets have used nighttime as analogy for the moments in their lives when they've felt free. I was just thinking of Goethe's 'midnight crossings' poem in this regard, and how even the most casual reader cannot imagine his lover to a woman rode out into the woods all alone in the middle of the night, on a horse! But I guess that's a different topic 😅

Nevertheless, Toni Schwabe is speaking to an audience who can understand her feelings of self-repression and glorious release.  

Thanks for reading and commenting

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On 2/7/2024 at 6:57 PM, ReaderPaul said:

Well said, @Parker Owens.  Also, it seems to me @AC Benus, that no matter how "in tune" two persons may be, there will at times be conflict -- sometimes with each other. but sometimes with the two versus the world.  But it can be faced, and solved.

Thanks, ReaderPaul. Being older as I am, I sometimes think back to how I got to be aware of a continuous, unbroken community of LGBTI2S+ people all working together to raise the barque of equality for our kind. And in theses moments I can uncover the simple feelings I had -- say 30 years ago, at the start of my marriage -- which said "two against the hatred of the world is enough." In that armor, if you will, I felt secure enough. And I believe at least part of your comment above expresses the same contentment that two can and often find in one another. This too is a great, unbroken community of same-sex loving people working quietly for equality within themselves.

Thanks again for reading and commenting  

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