The Ecstasies

Sat we two, one another best,

Bodies were left; souls rose and met.

They transacted their love at best.

Struck by the sight of their bodies,

Motionless, the souls asked themselves:

‘Our bodies why so we forbear?

They are ours, though they are not we.’

We are flames and they are matter.

‘We owe them thanks because they thus

Did us, to us, a first convoy

Yielded their forces, senses to us.’

The souls returned to their bodies,

And declared in solemnity:

“To feel love, we live in bodies.”

29.10.2008

[ Based on the poem with the same title, written by the famous love poet John Donne 1572-1631]