The context of my understanding of the importance from this poem comes from a previous text. Please read: A section out of one of my favorite books: The Weight of Glory first.
THE KISS
I want to kiss you
Like I want to climb inside your body
Like I want to crawl beneath your skin
Like your mouth is a passageway
A portal
A doorway
That opens to reveal
The essence of you
But not just you
The essence of
Everything
The spirit of being
The engulfing,
Overpowering,
Tears-streaming-down-my-cheeks-
Because-I-am-overrunning-with-emotion
Sensation of connecting with life
I want to kiss you
So deeply that the only way for you to breathe
Is through me
And yet I want you to forget to breathe
And breathe like you’re gasping for air
All at once.
Lost in the feeling of my mouth on yours
Head spinning
Wanting to wrap your entire body around mine
Wanting to pull my body inside your own
I want to kiss you
Like I want to eat you alive
Like the evolution of rational thought
Never took place
And I am just animal
I am only id
I want to kiss you as though
There is one jungle
And two lions fighting for kingship
Feeling as though
In the end
Only one of us may come out of it alive
I want you to kiss me
After throwing me against a wall
Diving into my mouth
As though it were a river
And you had been lost in the desert for a week
I want you to kiss me
With your lips on my neck
Like a vampire one drop of blood away from starvation
I want you to kiss me
Like you’re hungry for me
Like you’ve waited your entire life
For me
And yet
Find me more alluring and surprising
Than you imagined
I want you to kiss me
Like you can’t get enough of me
Like your life depends on the feeling
Of my lips on yours
I want you to kiss me
Because in so doing
You prove that you exist
And that every other moment
You have lived has simply
Lead to this
One defining instant
When your life was forever changed
When the violence of our desire
And the tenderness of our connection
Were measured in one moment …
The moment we kissed.
by Christina Trifillis Berben
Vincent’s response: Longing, it needs heart, it needs defenses to come down, it needs courage to love.
This poem is an epiphany of longing. Do I need to break this down for you. Does a woman want you to bring her a flower because it will get you points for being “thoughtful” or because you can’t wait to see the smile on her face because she in that moment feels your love and longing for her.
Men, do I need to break it down for you. Do you want your woman to be intimate with you because it’s been a while and she is feeling pressured or guilty or because she is longing for you.
In my humble opinion, I believe this poem is God inspired because of what it does to me. It provokes longing. Jesus didn’t say, read the Bible and you will find me, He said SEEK me and you will find me.
The longing that Christina understands and has captured in words can serve as a doorway, an epiphany for you.
And for you Christians out there who just “don’t get it”, read the book of Songs. Read it slowly. Read it in its context and you may find that it is not about Solomon and one of his many concubines. Oh, no, Solomon thought He could buy everything. The book of Songs if about longing. Solomon took a shepherd boys woman (the love of his life) away, and this erotic book that few people even know is in the Bible called Song of Songs tells the story of the longing these two had for each other.
O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63
In my opinion, the longing we have for intimacy, or we are made to have for intimacy and connection (even eroticism) for the love of our life, is to be nourished and kept alive. We all fail at times. We get caught up in the business of life. We don’t take care of our own selves- we forget who we are and then blame our spouse. But we must get up again.
There is no water is this land, your career, your money, your stocks, my beautiful convertible- it is preserved for you and the love of your life. And that is only a taste of the water God has. And I believe that is the whole point. By the way, the word worship in Greek means “to kiss”.
Here are some selections from the Song of Song:
“How beautiful you are, my darling.
How very beautiful!
Behind your veil,
your eyes are doves.
3 Your lips are like a scarlet cord,
and your mouth is lovely.
Behind your veil,
your brow is like a slice of pomegranate.
5 Your breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies.
6 Before the day breaks
and the shadows flee,
I will make my way to the mountain of myrrh
and the hill of frankincense.
7 You are absolutely beautiful, my darling,
with no imperfection in you.
11 Your lips drip [sweetness like] the honeycomb, my bride.
Honey and milk are under your tongue.
The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
12 My bride, [you are] a locked garden—
a locked garden and a sealed spring.
13 Your branches are a paradise of pomegranates
with choicest fruits,
14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
with all the trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes,
with all the best spices.
15 [You are] a garden spring,
a well of flowing water
streaming from Lebanon.
(She responds)
16 Awaken, north wind—
come, south wind.
Blow on my garden,
and spread the fragrance of its spices.
Let my love come to his garden
and eat its choicest fruits
12 His eyes are like doves
beside streams of water,
…and set like jewels.
13 His cheeks are like beds of spice,
towers of perfume.
His lips are lilies,
dripping with flowing myrrh.
14 His arms are rods of gold
His body is an ivory panel
covered with sapphires.
15 His legs are alabaster pillars
set on pedestals of pure gold.
His presence is like Lebanon,
as majestic as the cedars.
16 His mouth is sweetness.
He is absolutely desirable.
This is my love, and this is my friend,
young women of Jerusalem.
1 How beautiful are your sandaled feet, princess!
The curves of your thighs are like jewelry,
the handiwork of a master.
Your skin is silken and tawny
like a field of wheat touched by the breeze.
Your breasts are like fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
Your neck is carved ivory, curved and slender.
Your eyes are wells of light, deep with mystery.
Quintessentially feminine!
6 How beautiful you are and how pleasant,
[my] love, with such delights!
7 Your stature is like a palm tree;
your breasts are clusters [of fruit].
8 I said, “I will climb the palm tree
and take hold of its fruit.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes,
and the fragrance of your breath like apricots.
9 Your mouth is like fine wine
flowing smoothly for my love
gliding past my lips and teeth!
10 I belong to my love,
and his desire is for me.
6Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy is as hard and cruel as Sheol (the place of the dead). Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame [the very flame of the Lord]!
7Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would offer all the goods of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned and despised.
I want you, the reader to read this verse again:
6Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, jealousy is as hard and cruel as Sheol (the place of the dead). Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame [the very flame of the Lord]!
Yeah!!!! This is in the Bible. The Old Testament even.
I wish this kind of romance was in every marriage. In case you just don’t get it, this isn’t about sex, it is about desire, longing, connection and intimacy. Sex is just a way (or the way) to express it.