Touch Me
by Stanley Kuntz
Summer is late, my heart.
Words plucked out of the air
some forty years ago
when I was wild with love
and torn almost in two
scatter like leaves this night
of whistling wind and rain.
It is my heart that’s late,
it is my song that’s flown.
Outdoors all afternoon
under a gunmetal sky
staking my garden down,
I kneeled to the crickets trilling
underfoot as if about
to burst from their crusty shells;
and like a child again
marveled to hear so clear
and brave a music pour
from such a small machine.
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire.
The longing for the dance
stirs in the buried life.
One season only,
and it’s done.
So let the battered old willow
thrash against the windowpanes
and the house timbers creak.
Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.
Copyright © 1995 by Stanley Kunitz. All rights reserved. Used by permission. from Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected
(W. W. Norton, 1995)
Analysis:
Touch Me is a poem Stanley Kuntz wrote later in his life. It’s a poem about aging, memory, and desire. It shows that desire exists no matter your age. The speaker is asking to be remembered as he was in his younger days because essentially no matter your age we are still the same on the inside. It can also be seen as the speaker wanting to be reminded of how he was as a younger man. Either way, the speaker desires love and touch. His memory may be going, he may be aging, but his love and desire are still there.
What do you think of this poem? What is your analysis of it? What images do you see in it? Let me know.
Also, tell me your favorite poem. I can share it and do an analysis.
Michele
