Small Hands

I was reminded today of a poem. One that I have not heard for a long time. If anyone remembers the Beauty and the Beast television show then this might make some sense.

There was a "soundtrack" that went along with that show. I do not have a copy and have tried, desperately, to find one. They are on ebay occasionally and they are always expensive (CD copies going for 40+ dollars) because they are so rare. The CD is called "Of Love and Hope". The interesting part of it is that Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Alien 4, Blade 2 etc...) played the Beast. He also recited the things on this CD. They were sonnets and poems and excerpts from various poets through the ages...from Shakespeare to Rilke. This is one that i love, and i was reminded of it today.

Somewhere I have never travelled
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somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously) her first rose
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands
---E.E. Cummings