I Lay Beside You
I lay beside you, holding your hand in that twilight of touch before sleep
That slippery sleep
Beneath my hand I feel the rise and fall of your breathing
And I change my breathing to match yours
Inhaling and exhaling with you
Adrift in our sea
Rising and falling together
We are a wave, moving across the night
Finding our way to secret shores
If I felt your heartbeat, could I match mine to yours?
And beat as one heart?
One breath, one heart
In this way, I want to dream
With you, as one
Floating on into the endless tide
A Lovely Wait
A Lovely Wait
by NATHAN PARTAIN
I’ve seen great beauty in the starlit sky,
In the sweep of music, in my lover’s eyes,
But it has no weight apart from you.
I’ve sought for comfort, and I’ve scrounged for rest,
And I’ve searched for someway I could be content,
But the land is wanton, without you.
I’ve known man’s glory, just how it lasts,
With its fading flower and its witheried grass,
Cause There’s nothing living, without you.
I found innocence was stained, all the gold was lead,
I drank the ocean but I thirst again.
Cause the heart is restless without you.
So, I eat the dust, I wear the ash,
I bear the hunger, I keep the fast
It’s a lovely wait, to be with you.
I’m across from Canaan I’m looking in,
At the beautiful splendor of the Promised land,
But I will not enter, without you.
There is no affection, there is no feast,
There is no pleasure, there is no peace,
No, there is no heaven, without you.
So, I eat the dust, I wear the ash,
I bear the hunger, I keep the fast
It’s a lovely wait, to be with you.
I cry out in losses and I sing through wars,
For I know my Portion, my great Reward
It’s a lovely wait, to be with you.