NYMPHOLEPSY. 1775. [after epilepsy.] A state of rapture supposed to be inspired in men by nymphs; hence, an ecstasy or frenzy, esp. that caused by desire of the unattainable. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
In the sudden shock of noon
you seek out that bee-loud glade, the low hum
amplified in the fragile vibrato of a flower's drum.
All else is a perfumed narcotic hush:
the sway of big colour on unsteady stems,
each bloom astonishing itself into drunken flame.
You follow the gargle of the river down
to where the breakers tumble hugely in your head;
knowing her wardrobe is racked with tricks of light,
think you have almost glimpsed her gown
in some evanescent shift of sky or sea.
There, among the dying surf, there's that bright
static foaming through the sand...
- You try to catch her misty hem.
Her sleeve is water in your hand.
Come to - moments or is it hours later?
Clothes ragged, slimy, wet;
face stung by salt and sun;
mouth stuffed with weeds and grit;
one low swollen eye
considering a crab scuttling the beach,
a trickle of blood from your nose,
as your mind is pinned by a gull's screech.
Strange Tongues (1994)
So tell me then, the meaning of the sea.
- The ceaseless waves... What does their crashing mean?
And when we're hung, hammocked in the net of blood,
through which rivers do our veins flow as the day
trickles home? I want to know the wind that sways
the sheaf of nerves, which zithers shadows, sneezes chaff.
The billow that breathes blood's thermals; frays
all flags. That rips our sky. That stills the dance
like a glass wall. What is the meaning
of that knowledgeable music just off-stage?
The inharmonious machinery of chance?
- I feel its pulse: the surf beneath the skin;
the bone, seething in white coral rage,
the hollow blade which bleeds us from within.