THE PROFILE ON THE PILLOW
(by Dudley Randall)
After our fierce loving
in the brief time we found to be together,
you lay in the half light
exhausted, rich,
with your face turned sideways on the pillow
and I traced the exquisite
line of your profile, dark against the white,
delicate and lovely as a child's.
Perhaps you will cease to love me
or we may be consumed in the holocaust,
but I keep, against the ice and the fire,
the memory of your profile on the pillow.
© Dudley Randall
8 voices:
Rethabile, thanks for visiting my poetry blog, mypoetry.wordpress.com
Love Dudley Randall's poem! Thanks for posting.
Thanks be to Dudley for this awesome piece of work.
"with your face turned sideways on the pillow
and I traced the exquisite
line of your profile, dark against the white"
You've expressed this so beautifully, love it!!
Yes, this is sublime.
the aching of having nothing left but the remembrance of his profile... i feel it daily,, and wish solemnly that i could wash it away at times....
this was written with the heart.. very beautiful....
thank you for brining it to my attention....
Simplicity creates elegance, she is in silhouette and then she is a trace on the pillow. Very beautiful and elegant and tender poem.
What poetic, stark, poignant beauty.
Gemma
Oh, I know this poem. It is published in an anthology I own, Abandon Automobile, Detroit City Poets, 2000. I read it the first time during a course I took. We also had a chance to talk with Melba Joyce Boyd, assistant and long-time friend of Mr. Randall. Because of Randall many established poets today got their start. Do you know the history of Broadside Press?
A real joy to read this again. Thank you.
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