The Stages Of Love Poem by Annie Cordelia Adams

it's amazing
that after all this time
i still rush to the phone
when you call,
with that same excitement
as when you first began

it's amazing
how after the many times
you showed to me your love
i love you more
and with more passion
than when i first began

and even more amazing
is when i stop writing
just to think about you
because i am so overwhelmed,
so full of love, that i cannot
function the state of time

so, love me with the amazing
thrill you give to me each time
we're together. i guess it's too
much for me to handle, when
as i write, i gaze at my hands
wishing you were here to hold them.

i can smell you when you're gone
when i close my eyes in the dark.
i can taste your lips on mine
no matter how far away in the world
you ever will be. the map is not
adequate even to encompass our love

and neither are the oceans, in all their depth
nor the skies: for they cannot confine a comet
as it enters the atmosphere with fire and flame
ergo cannot confine our love to the space on earth
as it expands past the outer limits of our mind's
ability to recognize the expansion of matter.

we are a super nova in an empty galaxy, expanding
yet, we still become the sound of the wind in the trees
as they whisper (not hiss) to each other secrets of the forest
news from the world, that perfect world, where the sun never fades
and is not too bright as to burn the earth, but softly caresses
as your hand against my face, when you finally return home