You Looked More Beautiful (B) Poem by Gert Strydom

(in answer to Aleister Crowley)

The gypsy in your blood you did forswore,
I was caught by your eyes as we danced,
you looked more beautiful than before;
as sorceress and priestess you did entrance,
from my heart I did you truly adore,
surreal, truthful and holy was your glance.

Jasmine and gardenia was on the night-air,
you were so close it was almost a caress,
you said like popcorn was your silky hair,
your eyes gleamed; you floated in a dress,
it was if there was magic everywhere,
it was like lightning, my lips did on yours press,

blue the stars gleamed with infinite lights,
your lips were alive with passion and love
I wished on us millions of such nights,
from the God that destines from way above,
to serene tranquility away from city sights,
to keep you as my tigress and my dove.

Now all of this is a distant memory,
above me twinkle lonely the evening-star,
as if such wonderful things can not be
and from that kind of life you keep me far,
where you now do not want to live with me
and with words and things the way to you bar.

[Reference: 'La Gitana' by Aleister Crowley.

Poet's note: I am quoting his poem here:

'La Gitana' by Aleister Crowley

'Your hair was full of roses in the dewfall as we danced,
The sorceress enchanting and the paladin entranced,
In the starlight as we wove us in a web of silk and steel
Immemorial as the marble in the halls of Boabdil,
In the pleasuance of the roses with the fountains and the yews
Where the snowy Sierra soothed us with the breezes and the dews!
In the starlight as we trembled from a laugh to a caress,
And the God came warm upon us in our pagan allegresse.
Was the Baile de la Bona too seductive? Did you feel
Through the silence and the softness all the tension of the steel?
For your hair was full of roses, and my flesh was full of thorns,
And the midnight came upon us worth a million crazy morns.
Ah! my Gipsy, my Gitana, my Saliya! were you fain
For the dance to turn to earnest? - O the sunny land of Spain!
My Gitana, my Saliya! more delicious than a dove!
With your hair aflame with roses and your lips alight with love!
Shall I see you, shall I kiss you once again? I wander far
From the sunny land of summer to the icy Polar Star.
I shall find you, I shall have you! I am coming back again
From the filth and fog to seek you in the sunny land of Spain.
I shall find you, my Gitana, my Saliya! as of old
With your hair aflame with roses and your body gay with gold.
I shall find you, I shall have you, in the summer and the south
With our passion in your body and our love upon your mouth -
With our wonder and our worship be the world aflame anew!
My Gitana, my Saliya! I am coming back to you! ']
© Gert Strydom