My Favorite Poem

For some unexplained reason, I was thinking about my favorite poem today. I went to the bookshelf and retrieved my volume of poetry by Billy Collins, opened to the page where my place is kept permanently by the folded corner, and started reading the lovely poem. I don't know why I am so enamored by these words. Like many poems, this one doesn't even make total sense. I guess I just love how the words flow in a way that an image is created for you. Because I'm such a romantic, I also love the theme behind the poem. It talks about a deep desire to be ever-near to the one you love, because being with that person is the only timeless thing. When other experiences and objects fade away, the love people feel toward one other goes on. The first few lines are the most beautiful poetic lines I've ever read. I hope you like it!

Dancing Toward Bethlehem

If there is only enough time in the final

minutes of the twentieth century for one last dance

I would like to be dancing it slowly with you,

say, in the ballrooom of a seaside hotel.

My palm would press into the small of your back

as the past hundred years collapsed into a pile

of mirrors or buttons or frivolous shoes,

just as the floor of the nineteenth century gave way

and disappeared in a red cloud of brick dust.

There will be no time to order another drink

or worry about what was never said,

not with the orchestra sliding into the sea

and all our attention devoted to humming

whatever it was they were playing.