Henry Street Press

Poetry

a single drop of honey

by Marcia Martin

Published Sep. 2000

This book is rated for adults.

This is a love story, told in the ancient bard tradition – in poetry, with lush imagery and exquisite wordsmithing.

While most books of poetry are collections of writings on many different and often unrelated subjects, "a single drop of honey" reads more like a novella. It chronicles an entire relationship from beginning to end.

Marcia Martin writes of the longing for love ("Dreaming Hope"), of the indescribable joy of meeting one's soulmate ("Envying Eden"), of the most intense yet innocent passion one can feel (How Does One Transcribe Magic?"), and ultimately of wrenching heartbreak ("The Angel's Betrayal"). These are just a few of the 63 poems that weave the tapestry of this tale.

This book will leave you extraordinarily moved, and breathless at the roller coaster ride that defines those great love affairs that are doomed to implode under the sheer weight of their own rapture.

A sample poem from the book is below.

Nine Tenths

She has taken to bathing
in a darkened house, showering
in only moonlight

where she obsesses about obsession
and the fuzzy lines
it draws around everything but

She is pondering a way to capture the night,
hold the moon and stars without
either them or herself becoming hostage.

The water shatters over her body
in smashed diamonds,
window shadows tattoo
her naked wet in war paint…

she questions laws –
she does not trust them.

She would give it all
if she could own the moon
for the briefest slice of eternity…

just long enough, she bargains,

to let it linger on the tongue,
lap its opal mystery
to understand the amount
of courage it will take
to set it free.

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