March 19, 2011

Moment of Zen: Body, Remember….

By Joe

Body, Remember….

C.P. Cavafy

Body, remember not only how much you were loved,
not only the beds you lay on,
but also those desires that glowed openly
in eyes that looked at you,
trembled for you in the voices—
only some chance obstacle frustrated them.
Now that it’s all finally in the past,
it seems almost as if you gave yourself
to those desires too—how they glowed,
remember, in eyes that looked at you,
remember, body, how they trembled for you in those voices.

(C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)

About Joe

I began my life in the South and for five years lived as a closeted teacher, but am now making a new life for myself as an oral historian in New England. I think my life will work out the way it was always meant to be. That doesn't mean there won't be ups and downs; that's all part of life. It means I just have to be patient. I feel like October 7, 2015 is my new birthday. It's a beginning filled with great hope. It's a second chance to live my life…not anyone else's. My profile picture is "David and Me," 2001 painting by artist Steve Walker. It happens to be one of my favorite modern gay art pieces. View all posts by Joe

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 19th, 2011 at 2:25 pm and posted in Moment of Zen, Nudity, Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

3 responses to “Moment of Zen: Body, Remember….”

jaygeemmm
March 19th, 2011 at 2:56 pm

very nice…peace <3jay

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Chris
March 20th, 2011 at 7:44 pm

I love this one. Thanks for educating me, I was not familiar with Cavafy's work.

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JoeBlow
March 21st, 2011 at 12:07 am

Thanks, Jay and Chris. I was not actually familiar with Cavafy's work before I started searching for something to post on the "Ides of March." I came across his poem (that I posted on Tuesday) and as I was looking for a picture of Cavafy and researching who he was, I came across several references to his gay poetry and the series of images that I posted on Friday drawn to illustrate his poems. I have found his poetry to be quite beautiful and provocative.

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