A Brief History of Love

About the Book

I take your willing hand. Your
eyes are echo-chambers,
your pursed lips pattern sounds
that tell me we make sense,
that we are one flesh.
Dragonflies buzz over our heads
and stop. Now they
are mating on our window.
Outside, the tulip tree
flowers like a silent chorus
next to the yew with its
symphony of birdsong.

Our eyes are echo-chambers.
We are the residue of fire,
of a first love created
eons before man, when the dawn air
scented longing
and volcanoes promised heat.
In the beginning, an ordering,
a fulfillment, a coming
together, a one out of two,
an enormous coupling, an anti-
death. In the beginning, life,
a continuum aware of now,
suspecting a future.
A living missile
driving toward today,
toward dragonflies copulating
on our window.

Toward us.

About the Author

Born in 1922, Gordon King grew up on a farm in central Illinois. He served in India during World War II, and later entered the US Diplomatic Service where he had tours in Kabul, Tehran, Isfahan, Lahore, Bonn, Washington, London and finally as Principal Officer in Lahore. After retirement, the Kings lived in North Carolina, California, England, and on the coast of Maine. They returned to England in 1998 then, after his wife's demise, Gordon moved to western Virginia. Five books of Gordon’s poetry have been published. His poems have appeared in a variety of American and English magazines.