Sunday, November 09, 2008

Nearness

I have been craving a certain type of nearness to things: poems, humans, animals. A sort of companionable nearness more than an intimacy. A nearness that I can maintain -- that will not put me in the position of disappointment. I'm not sure if I can write it. I can write that I have been feeling overwhelmed, swept under, pulled in multiple directions.

1 comment:

K. Lorraine Graham said...

Nearness without the possibility of disappointment is hard. Lester is sitting on my knee, standing on one foot and chewing his beak--he's happy. But he still bites me at least once a week. He shrieks at the sound of crinkling plastic but finds the sound of the belt sander next door soothing enough to sing to.

In college, I had a boyfriend who simply could not sit quietly with me under any circumstances. We could not study or read together because of this. I used to fantasize about sitting in the same room with someone, feeling companionably close, and yet not talking, each of us enjoying our own thoughts.

is this real?