Scott Vanya - One Poem

As Calliope and I Crawl into Bed Together

As Calliope and I crawl in to bed together,
      it is with reckless
      abandon
      I write this.

Only 20 minutes to birth
      this bun in the oven,
      and she will wait
      not much
longer.

And I know, she has had
      many other
      lovers
      besides me,
      as I have had
      others
as well as her.

Yet, none of them,
      Kali (see "Oblivion"),
      Death (see "Despair"),
      and the many things
I have imbibed and ingested;

Yet,
as she and I crawl off to bed,
      so do you
      sleep with love
      and joy
      just waiting to be born,
      to be hatched
from out of your flesh.

And it will not be long,
      'fore she and I
      cast aside
      all the sheets
      and really
      get down to it.

The love-making art,
      where the rhythms
      and pulse,
      pound and earth
come rising out of us
      we entwine all
      of our-
      selves together.

"Sleep now," she says.
"You have done well," she says,
       "to honor me.
       and for you
I will do the same."

And even
if there be
no followers
it is she who
sits beside me as I write.

We giggle a bit,
and forget our loneliness,
for soon we are
to crawl off
to bed together.

And 'fore
she and I do
"Make The Wild Stuff"
I leave you
with these
few words
to perhaps
coax a smile from your face:

In all the world
and uni-, multi-, or omni-
verse,
there is only 1,
only 1 you.
And if you are to hear
what inside you
wants to be heard,
you must sing at the top of you lungs:

"I am only beginning now to understand,
I can not die,
and all The World
is
my joy."



Scott Vanya is an Austin, TX area poet. He has been writing for a long time and favors sharing his work at open mics where he performs extemporaneously and plays guitar. His work has appeared in Walt’s Corner, Manna, Perigee, Chicago Literary Review, Mobius, Cosmic Trend, Pitchfork, Romantics Quarterly, Artisan, Pegasus, The Neovictorian, and The Blind Man's Rainbow. He is author of poetry collections, Free for an Unlimited Time, Conduit's of the Sublime, and CarryAway Seeds. He operates Open Mics Austin, a blogsite that archives various Austin area open mics and performances.