Somewhere on the other side of this wide night
and the distance between us, I am thinking of you.
The room is turning slowly away from the moon.
This is pleasurable. Or shall I cross that out and say
it is sad? In one of the tenses I singing
an impossible song of desire that you cannot hear.
La lala la. See? I close my eyes and imagine
the dark hills I would have to cross
to reach you. For I am in love with you and this
is what it is like or what it is like in words.
— Carol Ann Duffy
A rather lovely uncomplicated sort of poem.
But how nice to have an uncomplicated poem about love and desire. I thought this rather beautiful.
My husband and I first saw this poem on London Undergrounds Tubes, when they were doing the ‘Poems on the underground’ series. Being very young (early 20’s ) and very much in love but also having both experienced loss and homelessness this poem meant so much to both of us. Now I’m 53 and my husband died when he was 35. (we were born 6 months apart so I have been a widow 18 years) It still speaks volumes to me, my feeling for him and the losses I feel grow deeper as the years pass. Reading this poem again after many years is so very bittersweet.