A dream

I had a vivid dream recently. A dream of a brief meeting between two people.

In this dream I could not speak.
I was completely mute. No matter how I tried, a sound could not escape my mouth.
Instead of sound I used sign language - as we all know, anything is possible in dreams.

As I wondered the streets of London, full of noise and movement, I stumbled into a man. 
He, like me, was completely mute.
We tried for a while to communicate, but it became apparent to me that we were using different sign language... 
He was Asian, I was British. 
As a way of conversing we used papers and pen - drawing what was in our heads and writing words in English neither of us could vocalise.

I wondered with this man for what must have been the entire day - and it really felt like a day, despite dream-time being so unlike ordinary clock-time. 
The papers of scribbles and text mounted and I knew that he, just like me, had not shared any of this with anyone before. 
As dusk came, and the sky was tainted pink on blue, we said our goodbyes.
We knew we would never see each other again. We didn't write a number or address on paper. We just parted.

The dream took me to one of Neruda's poems:

"I love the sailors
Who kiss and go."

Is this my dream...Or is it my desire?

sink with love, or walk on...quick!

In you the wars and the flights accumulated.
From you the wings of the song birds rose.

You swallowed everything, like distance.
Like the sea, like time. In you everything sank!

It was the happy hour of assault and the kiss.
The hour of the spell that blazed like a lighthouse.

Pilot's dread, fury of blind driver,
turbulent drunkenness of love, in you everything sank!

In the childhood of mist my soul, winged and wounded.
Lost discoverer, in you everything sank!

You girdled sorrow, you clung to desire,
sadness stunned you, in you everything sank!

I made the wall of shadow draw back,
beyond desire and act, I walked on.


Pablo Neruda.

Do we only know love when it is Absent?

In the words of Neruda:


I have scarcely left you
When you go in me, crystalline,
Or trembling,
Or uneasy, wounded by me
Or overwhelmed with love, as
when your eyes
Close upon the gift of life
That without cease I give you.

My love,
We have found each other
Thirsty and we have
Drunk up all the water and the
Blood,
We found each other
Hungry
And we bit each other
As fire bites,
Leaving wounds in us.

But wait for me,
Keep for me your sweetness.
I will give you too
A rose.