To My Immortal Beloved
While still in bed my thoughts turn to you,
my Immortal Beloved,
some of them happy and some sad.
I wait to see whether fate will hear our prayer.
I can live only completely with you or not at all.
Why must I be separated from one who is so dear.
Your love has made me the happiest of mortals.
I must close so that you may receive this letter immediately.
What tearful longing for you, my life--my all--my everything.
Farewell then.
Go on loving me . . .
Ever yours,
Ever mine
Forever
--beethoven
The Dark Night
In the night that was dark,
Made fiery by the furies of love
~Oh, blessed moment!~
I left without being noticed
All the doors of my house closed for the night
Secure and in the dark,
On the secret staircase, stealth
~Oh, blessed moment!~
And darkness protected me,
All the doors of my house closed for the night
In the delicious night,
In privacy, where no one saw me,
Nor did I see one thing,
I had no light or guide
But the fire that burned inside my chest.
That fire showed me
The way more clearly than the blaze of noon
To where, waiting for me,
Was the One I knew so well,
In that place where no one ever is.
Oh night, sweet guider,
Oh night more marvelous than dawn!
Oh night which joins
The lover and the beloved
So that the lover and beloved change bodies....
St. John of the Cross
I was never what you wanted
but my blood will serve your purpose
quench your hunger for a short time
use me, I give you my life and soul
they mean nothing to me now
you always had my soul
Since that day long ago
now you don't want it
my blood is all you want
you'll take it and leave me
lying on the cold floor to die
alone and drained
of my very life
--Ryan Spingola
On swift sail flaming
From storm and south
He comes, pale vampire
Mouth to my mouth.
--James Joyce (Ulysses)
My dear young maiden clingeth
Unbending, fast and firm
To all the long-held teaching
Of a mother ever true;
As in vampires unmortal
Folk on the Theyse's portal
Heyduck-like do believe.
But my Christian thou dost dally,
And wilt my loving parry
Til I myself avenging
To a vampire's health a-drinking
Him toast in pale tockay.
And as softly thou art sleeping
To thee shall I come creeping
And thy life's blood drain away.
And so shalt thou be trembling
For thus shall I be kissing
And death's threshold thou'lt be crossing
With fear, in my cold arms.
And last shall I thee question
Compared to such instruction
What are a mother's charms?
--Heinrich August Ossenfelder
The Ghost of Orna Villa
In the weird of night when the
lights are no more
And the clock on the mantel beats
slower than slow,
A man walks forth with a
measured tread.
He is not of this earth--
the man's from the dead.
He walks with assurance;
his tread is not light;
This man from the dead
seems to think he has right.
--Mrs. Paul Campbell, circa 1946
Email: ladyofthedark1@hotmail.com
