A Love Note

Pakistani poet and singer Adeeba Shahid Talukder wrote this poem as a second anniversary gift to her husband Willem, “who had held my hand through the deepest throes of mental illness, who had loved me so fiercely that I, at last, began to believe I deserved love.” Particularly this week, Suicide Prevention Week, Adeeba’s words about the critical importance of support and love resonate.

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A Love Note

by Adeeba Shahid Talukder

My love,

you are water upon water

upon water until it turns

azure, mountainous.

The horizon fills like sand

between glass marbles. So much

has passed between us--

last night you told me

to press your hand

harder and harder as I pained.

The sunset was at its last

embers. The dark was stealing

the blue light from our room.

I was falling into you.

--

Compress water and it turns to ice-- compress beauty

and it loses breath. Gaze at it too long, and even the wide

mirror of the ocean will shatter.

--

My Willem,

between us,

God has descended in all His atoms.

We have not yet learned to hold Him.

Posted with the permission of the author