Poème de la semaine: Une Collection de la Fondatrice Poem 38, Endless Journeys: Prayers and Cicadas
Author: Sofia Pantazi, 2023 - Current | Olive Trees
Each week, Sofia Pantazi shares a poem from her book Olive Trees, which she is currently working on. Inspired by her Dutch and Greek heritage, personal experiences from childhood to the present, and her life living in Paris for the past three years. Through her emotions and reflections, she invites readers to explore moments of vulnerability, strength, and growth—capturing the beauty of life’s everyday journey.
Olive Trees, Poem 38, September 2024
Endless Journeys: Prayers and Cicadas
Some weekends arrive like whispers in the heat of August, leaving traces that linger long after the sun sets. “Endless Journeys” was written on a warm Friday evening in the South of France, by a poolside shaded by cicadas, where time seemed to stretch and collapse all at once. It is a confession, a chronicle of intimacy, and a meditation on the strange intersections of freedom, love, and desire.
The poem begins in that delicate space between anticipation and reflection. I am two days into the holiday, a visitor, a transient soul drifting through a paradise most would call “ideal.” Yet, despite being surrounded by beauty, I am acutely aware of my own detachment, not anyone’s lover, not anyone’s family, just an addition to the scenery. That tension between belonging and observing, between longing and restraint, sets the tone for the piece.
Moments of vulnerability are captured in the simplest of acts: reading Turks Fruit by Jan Wolkers, laughing about sex positions and youth, talking about faith and education. The poem blends the erotic with the philosophical, showing how intimacy can both expose and protect us. By midnight, in the quiet of a horse stable under the stars, desire becomes raw and undeniable, it is no longer theoretical. Our bodies collide with urgency and tenderness, a choreography of want and surrender. Skin against skin, whispers into moans, breaths mingling in the darkness, each movement a declaration of unspoken needs, a daring act of trust and abandon.
Yet, desire is never simple here. There is the acknowledgment of risk, the refusal to be hurt, the quiet prayers offered in solitude, the longing for a love that may not endure. The poem doesn’t shy away from contradictions: wanting someone entirely while knowing they fear commitment, losing oneself in ecstasy while guarding the heart. Every kiss, every touch, every intimate confession magnifies both passion and fragility. It is this delicate balance, this dance between surrender and self-preservation, that gives the work its pulse.
“Endless Journeys” is about more than a fleeting romantic encounter. It is about presence—the intensity of being fully seen, fully felt, fully known, if only for a moment. It is about how love and desire can transform ordinary days into something infinite, and how memory can turn a weekend into a lifetime. Even as the hours slip away, even when the other is still beside me, absence begins to whisper, and the ache of longing becomes its own form of intimacy.
Ultimately, this poem is a confession to the cosmos and to oneself: that love, desire, and longing are not linear. They are perpetual journeys, endlessly unfolding in the spaces between bodies, words, and silent prayers. For that fleeting weekend in the South of France, everything, everything, was profoundly alive, every heartbeat echoing with the intensity of passion and the fragility of desire.
