I wonder, can the night go by; <br />Can this shot arrow of travel fly <br />Shaft-golden with light, sheer into the sky <br /> Of a dawned to-morrow, <br />Without ever sleep delivering us <br />From each other, or loosing the dolorous <br /> Unfruitful sorrow! <br /> <br />What is it then that you can see <br />That at the window endlessly <br />You watch the red sparks whirl and flee <br /> And the night look through? <br />Your presence peering lonelily there <br />Oppresses me so, I can hardly bear <br /> To share the train with you. <br /> <br />You hurt my heart-beats’ privacy; <br />I wish I could put you away from me; <br />I suffocate in this intimacy, <br /> For all that I love you; <br />How I have longed for this night in the train, <br />Yet now every fibre of me cries in pain <br /> To God to remove you. <br /> <br />But surely my soul’s best dream is still <br />That one night pouring down shall swill <br />Us away in an utter sleep, until <br /> We are one, smooth-rounded. <br />Yet closely bitten in to me <br />Is this armour of stiff reluctancy <br /> That keeps me impounded. <br /> <br />So, dear love, when another night <br />Pours on us, lift your fingers white <br />And strip me naked, touch me light, <br /> Light, light all over. <br />For I ache most earnestly for your touch, <br />Yet I cannot move, however much <br /> I would be your lover. <br /> <br />Night after night with a blemish of day <br />Unblown and unblossomed has withered away; <br />Come another night, come a new night, say <br /> Will you pluck me apart? <br />Will you open the amorous, aching bud <br />Of my body, and loose the burning flood <br /> That would leap to you from my heart?<br /><br />David Herbert Lawrence<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/excursion-2/
