To The Unknown Woman Poem by Roy William Gotaas

I don’t know your name

But you’re the unmistakable first-light that promises another day:

You’re the call of the currawong through the bush in the crystal morning:

You’re the grateful shade of the trees at noon:

You’re the passion and the peace of night-time.



I don’t know your face

But in your eyes is the joy of living in each moment:

You’re that moment promised into the forever future:

You’re the beauty that at last can move my soul:

You’re my understanding finally of why I have to be.



I don’t know your scent

But it carries the invisible mystery of dreams awake:

It’s lilac in an English spring, sweetness of the mothering Earth:

It’s the first rainfall on parched ground, life promising:

It’s your musk in the heated night, salty and blood-rousing.



I don’t know your body

But it offers me the only home I’ve known or wanted:

It’s warm and welcoming in night, as in the heat of day:

It’s smooth and soft and firm and yielding:

It’s the visible place of passion and peace.



I don’t know your voice

But it will be familiar when I hear it:

It will be gentle with the timbre of love:

It will carry sincerity and truth to me:

It will rouse the man and soothe the boy to sleep.



I don’t know where you are

But I go on believing in you against the bleak loneliness:

You’re the purpose of my so long journey:

You’re the hope beyond every skyline:

You’re so hard to live without.

'Sofala 4.2008'