My initial comments will make most (or least) sense to my fellow Christians, but I hope the gist of them and my final comments introducing the poem will make sense to anyone at all who believes that our love (romantic and otherwise) is meaningful and beautiful, unless we selfishly make it otherwise. Traditional readings of the Songs of Solomon have tended to shy away from the overt sensuality of the poem, at times straining even to acknowledge it at any level as a very human love poem. Instead, finding it uncomfortable yoking the sensual and the spiritual, scholars have "spiritualized" the text to the point of, in my opinion, robbing it of its human vitality. More accurately stated, it has seemed to me that biblical interpreters have robbed the poem of its deeply incarnational message--even as they insist that the poem is, in the end, all about Jesus as the groom and his people as the bride. By doing so, they rob human love, including sexual love, of its incarnational value. What do I mean by "incarnational" value? Simply put (though not at all simple): God's spirit working in us and through us, in the totality of our humanity, that inseparable unity of body, soul, and mind, and in and through our human community (marriage, friendship, a fellowship of believers, etc.). Years ago, one friend said of sex that "God has ordained the marital passion pit." Pit? Why "pit"? A low place? A hole in the ground? What good things happen in pits?! And while I can agree with the theological gist of what my friend said apart from that horrid word, "pit," I do not feel inclined to keep the subject--or the act--so emotionally distant by "elevating" it with such formal language, while also consigning it to whatever sort of pit my friend had in mind. Ugh. I grew up in a social and religious tradition that did not know how to speak of human love, especially sexual love, without great discomfort, as physicality was virtually equated with temptation and sin, the body being the source of the worst temptations and thus the source of the worst evils. I find all of that to be very sad and destructive, and even unspiritual, but I will not attempt here to lay out explanations. Instead, I will ask you to read my poem. Song for the Incarnate down a dark vacancy and dank
I rock legs drawn up head dropped arms taut like hemp rope trussed around knees knowing one thing I fear my dear damn Self the most don’t let me rail revile rage dear against my world I will destroy it oh my darling your deep breasts like twin gazelles your neck nubile ivory tower heart pulse warm your hair a wild paradise pillow of silk river I lie down beside you my left arm cradling your nape my right hand caressing, loveliness oh, calm me from my rage my love my queen incarnadine and drown me draw me in darling deep pools your eyes I breathe your nectar sweet aroma I taste your tongue I love you oh my God love me with her body
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