"The Compass" by Stephen Morrissey

You never know where a poem will turn up. A few days ago I was reading some old entries on this blog and came across how someone had used my poem, "The Compass", on an actual compass. A writer in Paris contacted me and generously sent me one of these compasses from a friend of hers who had travelled in Asia. It's a pretty good poem and here it is once again.

On the four corners of the bed

the body becomes a compass

describing the direction

of passion. Months of desire

arrive at this destination,

rocking on a single almost silent

wave we are sheltered

by darkness. The body

is a compass needle;

you turned me from east to west

awoke a sleeping giant that moves

between your mouth and breasts and legs;

the room illuminated by static electricity

thrown off by our bodies.

How many decades did I sleep

waiting only for you; I lust after you

in all the directions of space.

Meeting at the airport

your foot touching my leg

beneath the restaurant table,

we secretly entered an empty banquet

hall where the caterers chattered and

poured drinks behind a wall partition

then quickly leaving

we found a deserted hallway

of open office doors

where we embraced.

All the others in my life

fell away, I was ready

to abandon my old life for you,

for the touch of your hand

and mouth, the apple red and delicious

cut in half that I eat.

Tied to the four corners of love

as to a bed which becomes a compass,

I find you on your stomach,

on your back, in the morning

lying pressed against me.

It is not possible to return

to sleep now, it is not possible

to forsake your touch and love,

black lace, fingers, wetness,

your mouth, words. The compass

needle turns finding north switched

to east and west to south, night

becomes morning; nothing remains

as it was. You pointed my life

in a new direction, towards a corner

of the world only dreamt of before.

Outside the sun is red

descending behind a row of trees,

shadows fade into the other

unexplored regions of night.

From: The Compass, (Book One, The Shadow Trilogy), Empyreal Press, Montreal, 1993