The Irrational Numbers of Longing,
The Infinite Mathematics of Desire
This day could be reduced to three elements:
green grass, blue hills, yellow fields of mustard,
solid in its planes as any late Cézanne. It makes me think
of the curves your hips and back make when you are sleeping,
the way my fingers travel the back road of your spine,
the landscape of our bodies under the quilt.
I want to relearn the language of plane geometry,
the relationship of curves in space, the friction
between positive and negative numbers, improper
fractions, your lovely smooth surface, the angle
of intersection, where we come together in the dark..
— Barbara Crooker, 2005
Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus,
but use all gently.
For in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say,
whirlwind of passion,
you must acquire and beget
a temperance that may give it smoothness.
~ William Shakespeare
Love/Life Poems
