To Carolyn: 1980 Poem by Roy William Gotaas

From the wrong end of the world and twenty years,
I think of you again tonight
And total my memories.
High cheek-bones, ringing voice and unembroidered talk,
Bronzed skin and tennis:
You played, I watched
And saw you as of another race:
Strong, alone and always distant.

Fragments: yet the whole of what I knew
Overwhelmed me, and all that essentially
I lacked and longed for
Was the warm circle of your golden-haired arms.
Boy that I was, that was love.

In the years between I’ve learned the various forms of love:
Gymnastics, art and science; ritual and metaphor.
The world has taught me something of it yet, tonight,
Dry as a stone on this burnt track,
I forget geometry.
As so many times since
I heard the sigh of your racquet,
I remember only that I lack and ache for
The warm circle of your arms:
Man that I am, this is love.