The Song of Songs is the Church’s original poem of desire. Its scarlet thread is everywhere in the poetry of the West, as witness these lines from Micheal O’Siadhail’s ‘Love Song’, from his Love Life (2005).
Fragrance of your oils.
L’amour fou. Such sweet folly.
Your haunting presence
Distilled traces of perfume.
Resonances of voice
Dwell in my nervous body.
My skin wants to glow,
All of my being glistens.
Divine shining through.
Your lips like a crimson thread,
Your mouth is lovely …
You’re all beautiful, my love.
Honeyed obsession
Of unreasonable love.
Pleased, being pleased,
I caress this amplitude,
Eternal roundness.
Voluptuous golden ring.
Sap and juices sing
Eden’s long song in the veins.
Spirit into flesh.
The flesh into the spirit.
A garden fountain,
A well of living water,
Flowing streams from Lebanon.
O’Siadhail’s beloved shapeshifts back and forth into the Song’s beloved: his italicized lines are from the Song. The poet’s love for his beloved, like the Lord’s love for you, is a honeyed obsession, utterly unreasonable. All of my being glistens: with the glister of the Lord’s radiance. This love solves no problems, provides no solutions. It is the transfiguration of all difficulties, not their removal.
