Longing for the Beloved

This barren longing,

This lack of capacity

to feel Thy embrace Beloved,

Is breaking my heart.

My longing for thy kiss,

has turned my heart into barren soil longing for rain,

it has made deep cracks and

in the cracks some cold flame is kindled on

the bone dry tinder of myself.

I wail,

I know it is wailing because I’ve heard it before,

with the Friends who’ve mingled love with separation,

and like those friends, on calloused feet I too 

irresistibly begin to turn - 

It is the only thing that seems to give the pain a home, 

like red-hot iron quenched in some all-pervading ocean of love.

As my heart turns, it calls out this song:

Longing the fuel,

Love the flame,

I will burn `til morning

when nothing remains 

but YOU.