I burn and as I burn,
I burn most brightly for you.
You have the best part of me;
Few others share the light, the heat I lave you with.
What am I to you?
One bright star among many,
But I am your star, brightest point of the heavens:
To guide, to comfort, to entice,
To serenade and seduce you is my fondest desire.
You take your light from many stars, but you,
You are my sun and my moon.
I need your light or my world is dark and desperate.
Your promiscuity wounds me:
When I need you, I would have you completely.
(That is how I give myself to you when I give.)
Your bounty is great, just so my thirst for you,
And I drink too greedily sometimes,
I know.
Forgive me, my love.
But sometimes I need darkness,
Darkness to dream,
To hatch ideas, to rest.
You need light always, restless soul,
But you have many stars to look on.
When I need darkness, my sun, my moon,
I must shut myself out from you,
Draw Night’s curtains about myself.
In these moments, love,
Go mingle with your other stars,
But I will need, crave your light soon.
Fear not that I will keep the curtains drawn.
I will not hide forever,
For I need your light,
And to burn as brightly as I may
For you.
As I pass behind my veil,
I beg you,
Do not turn away from me
Or my world shall be black, my sun and moon.
When I emerge to present myself to you,
This is when I long most deeply
To receive and to give.
Then, from the darkness of your absence, I must fly
Or I will fade, my heat dissipating into cold;
A dead rock haunting the void I will become.
Then seek another star, love,
But none so bright as I will be found.
Nay, never desert me, my radiant one,
For I am and was meant to be
Your own.
O my precious star!
Long in the heavens, I have burned,
Solar monarch in golden robe,
Burned for all the wide celestial chorus.
A sea of pale light around me,
These others shine adoring on me,
But you, you are the brightest,
You, my precious one!
So brightly the heart of you burns,
These others seem
But ghosts to your radiance.
When I first saw you,
Strange, errant light shedding defiance,
Yet alone,
Fierce yet fragile,
I wanted to touch you,
Longed to flame brighter still,
Stretch myself out across more of the heavens,
So I could reach closer to you,
My little jewel.
Why this vain moodiness, love?
If I smile on others as it moves me,
Do not chide me, jealous one.
These others, they receive but the surplus
Of the inspiration you bring me,
Partake of the extra warmth you coax from me.
Why won’t you share your own light
With the other stars?
Why seek to drive them away?
For they do not hate you,
And your brightness surely
Is the same for them as for me.
And why, oh why, my little star,
Do you hide from me?
As I gaze longingly on you,
You draw Night’s veil about yourself,
And I am saddened, for your light no longer greets me.
I look to these others, this sea of lesser stars,
And am comforted,
And yet you are not there,
You, the crown jewel of Night.
You have gone, and I am not so glad as I am wont.
Yet as my sadness grows, and my fear,
Fear that I have lost you,
Suddenly you part your veil.
Your naked beauty dwarfs these others,
My precious one,
And I am glad again, rejoicing in greater flame.
But as my joy peaks,
You disappear again and I am vexed.
My little star, without you I would yet shine,
But the sky would be paler without you
And I would be sadder.
Tarry not long in this private night of yours,
My precious one,
For in my vexation, I may seek another, who,
Though lesser than you, may be more constant.
We two moons, we are each other’s.
I am yours; you are mine.
And there is nothing else to gainsay us.
When I look on you, I see myself reflected.
I need neither sun or stars, for I have you, my second
sphere.
There’s just you and ancient darkness
In the sacred womb of Night.
There are times, my love, when you disappear from my
sight,
Draw your curtain about you to shut yourself out from me.
It is fair, love, for I do the same,
Though it would be better if we could draw our curtains in sync,
For I do miss you, my love, when you are gone.
The world is wholly dark and I fear I will go cold and dark.
But I know you will come out, for I always do.
We understand each other so beautifully.
It is fortunate we found each other, love.
You and I burn so faintly, it was hard to see each other
At first.
But when you came close enough,
Oh then, love, I knew you as my own,
And you knew that I was yours.
Now we are two bright orbs in darkness.
What shall I do love, if you leave me?
I shall go cold and dark
And become a lifeless stone in the heavens,
And you? Where would you go?
The sky is nearly empty except for me.
Your like end would soon follow.
So we must stay together, always, my love,
Ever and always, two kindred moons bound in the sky.
Two stars among the throng of heaven,
We see much the same thing,
The harmony of the sky, vast sea of our
Brother and sister stars.
Long we rejoiced in our own parts of the heavens,
When I glanced afar and saw you,
A brighter, merrier star among your peers,
And you looked back longingly on me.
For that moment, we were bound as one,
Despite the distance.
Now we dance together, splendid partners at a ball,
Whirling round the others,
Admiring the gaiety, the pageantry of the whole dance.
We are apart from the others, yet never alone.
Other couples wink at each other and we wave at them.
Do not fade too soon, love, for my eye wanders
Always over all the stars, as yours surely does.
If we lose each other, or you or I leave the other,
There will be others waiting,
One for each of us among the crowd.
George Chadderdon © 2005