Sailing -- Henrik Nordbrandt

Guest poem submitted by Sashidhar Dandamudi:

(Poem #1046) Sailing After having loved we lie close together and at the same time with distance between us like two sailing ships that enjoy so intensely their own lines in the dark water they divide that their hulls are almost splitting from sheer delight while racing, out in the blue under sails which the night wind fills with flower-scented air and moonlight - without one of them ever trying to outsail the other and without the distance between them lessening or growing at all. But there are other nights, where we drift like two brightly illuminated luxury liners lying side by side with the engines shut off, under a strange constellation and without a single passenger on board: On each deck a violin orchestra is playing in honor of the luminous waves. And the sea is full of old tired ships which we have sunk in our attempt to reach each other. -- Henrik Nordbrandt

Translated from the Danish by the author and Alexander Taylor.

The punch is in the last two lines: "And the sea is full of old tired ships
/ which we have sunk in our attempt to reach each other." What a wonderful
way to describe all the relationships one has gone through to arrive at the
present. Also this one captures the languidness of the post-coital trance
very well, like that Seth poem "To Make Love to A Stranger".

Sashi.

[Links]

Here's a rather LitCritty essay on Nordbrandt's poetic themes:
http://www.litteraturnet.dk/danvalg/frameit.asp?dest=http://www.litteraturne
t.dk/danvalg/f_portraet.asp!fid=56&fid=56

Here's a nice drawing of the poet:
http://www.qikrux.com/henrik_nordbrandt.htm

Here's Google:
http://www.google.com/