Long and Intentional
When I last held you
I looked you in the eyes.
I tasted your lips and
breathed in your very breath.
Our embrace long and intentional,
tender whispers of affection.
Already I think of when
we will be together again.
I desire to hug you longer
and longer even still.
A feeling exists between us
completeness now fulfilled.
To the last I try to hold you,
but I know I must let go.
Parting has a sadness,
I endure every time.
The memory of you yesterday
is written on my mind.
The hope of you this morning
comes with the breaking dawn,
Your presence I think of
until you’re truly here.
Every collection of love poetry must eventually face the truth of absence. This poem does so with quiet courage. It does not dramatize the parting — it simply sits inside it, honest about the sadness and equally honest about the hope that carries Scott forward until the next embrace. It is the collection’s most tender poem, and in many ways its most human.
There is a particular kind of sadness that only people who love deeply understand — the sadness of letting go of someone you have just held. I wrote this poem in that feeling, trying to stay inside it long enough to describe it honestly. The word intentional came to me because that is what our embraces are. We both know the parting is coming and we choose to hold on anyway. That choice is its own form of love.