first love poem

south carolina cottage  gouache  12" x 16"

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the epic of gilgamesh is epic poetry from mesopotamia and is among the earliest known works of literature. scholars believe that it originated as a series of sumerian legends and poems about the protagonist of the story, gilgamesh king of uruk, which were fashioned into a longer akkadian epic much later. the most complete version existing today is preserved on 12 clay tablets from the library collection of 7th-century BC assyrian king ashurbanipal. recently an additional clay tablet was discovered, speculated to be a preface to the epic, possibly the world's first love poem.
roughly translated:

in the light
scented air
her skin, her hair
her voice, her breath
the morning rain
she walks the ground
tender shapes
the footprints made
not of time
or skin or sight
but of a garden
a garden's delight

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