The Mountain (How We Love)

How in my heart I can picture you and me,    
sitting upon the mantle smilingly  
gazing out upon the world as it appears,    
an endless sea    
    
Burning our eyes like fire,    
salty and drawing our breath.    
For what would we wish,    
for Heaven in our midst,    
for losing ourself in this dream.    
   
For what we can hope for in this place,    
for that which we can only esteem.    
Setting suns and rising tides    
are cherished moments in our time,    
together are pondered frame by frame,    
but what can come of this heart's name:    
   
Our lives and the memory of it are    
compressed into one..    
   
We reflect upon one another    
only as much as a mirror sees,    
gives itself back to the other    
and in this way you reflect me.    
   
I can’t regret you if I tried,    
I conjured you up all my life,    
you became how we remained,    
for only this we tried    
and tried and tried as whence we stood    
as a sea gull on a moor,    
to never fall or forget to stand,    
in this way we never would.    
   
We stood for things beyond remand,    
we reached for things beyond our hands.    
A moving sea so icy cold    
froze our wrists to the bone,    
yet we never were alone.    
Every light within us shone    
   
Illuminating all that lives    
beneath the waters crystal keep.    
And I keep you and you keep me    
warmed within our earthly stones,    
warming things within our bones;    
unknown things, unseen things.    
And so never were we all alone.    
   
On mountaintops where meadows grow,    
surely we can walk and wade.    
Like the grasses to and fro,    
as children we can remain.    
Grass is green in Spring to all Summer long    
so it does not show its age.    
Within each blade, a mountains song:    
   
So does our love not know its age.    
   
              .....

       #ElizabethBishop