With Me
In everything I do
somehow I’m always thinking of you.
Not always with absolute focus
but you are always there.
I find that you are with me,
in a crowd or when I’m alone.
I take you in my mind and in my heart.
My companion wherever I go.
You have become part of me,
my spirit knows your name.
I’m a different person,
I’ll never be the same.
I know you’re always with me
it’s something that I feel.
A new dimension in my life.
To me it’s very real.
This way that I have discovered
of knowing you’re within.
Gives me lasting comfort
until I see you again.
I’m blessed with you beloved,
I savor the knowledge of you.
You saturate my crystal clarity
and color me like tie-dye designs.
I need this luminescence
until the end of time.
After declaration, battle, parting, longing, and desire, the collection arrives at something quieter and perhaps more profound — the ordinary miracle of carrying someone with you through every moment of every day. This poem does not reach for dramatic feeling. It describes the feeling that is simply always there, ambient and constant, the way sunlight is present even when you are not looking at it.
This poem surprised me when I wrote it. I was not reaching for anything dramatic — I was simply noticing what was true. Priya is with me all the time now. Not in a way that distracts me but in a way that accompanies me. The final stanza came quickly and felt exactly right. Crystal clarity colored by tie-dye is the best description I have found for what it feels like to have her in my life — she does not cloud my thinking, she enriches it with color and warmth and light.