English followed by une version en français y una versión en español. The rejected, superseded, original draft of this poem is reproduced, in English only, at the end of this post.

A note from October 2025: I not sure there is anything good about this poem (if poem it is!), except for this couplet:

I stop here
With you.

But this couplet keeps reappearing in my mind, and though it was written with one particular woman in mind, it has gone on to apply to at least one other. Which, we might say, gives the lie to the whole enterprise.

I stop here with you

For M

I stop here

With you.

Will time show us our faith has been misplaced?

I suppose it will,

Sooner than later.

But I am not looking further than you.

In my imagination

You are solid.

We don’t know what the future holds

For a person such as you imagine yourself to be,

As I imagine myself to be –

So lovable

We might hold hands,

We might hug.

I stop here

With you.

Note

There is a line from a Frank O’Hara poem that is routinely being quoted out of context, to include by Sally Rooney, as the epigraph for her (excellent) novel Conversations with Friends, and now here, by me, in the context of the present poem. The line is “In times of crisis, we must all decide again and again whom we love.” O’Hara’s love in this case is Hollywood; the poem is titled To the Film Industry in Crisis and concludes: “Roll on, reels of celluloid, as the great earth rolls on!”

Français

Je m’arrête ici avec toi

Pour M

Je m’arrête ici

Avec toi.

Allons-nous apprendre que la foi est mal placée ?

Et plus tôt que tard ?

Mais je ne regarde pas plus loin que toi.

Dans mon imagination

Tu es solide.

Nous ne savons pas ce que l’avenir réserve

À une personne telle que tu t’imagines,

À une personne comme je m’imagine –

Tellement adorables,

Nous pourrions nous tenir la main.

Je m’arrête ici

Avec toi.

Español

Me detengo aquí contigo

Para M

Me detengo aquí

Contigo.

¿Vamos a aprender que nuestra fe ha estado fuera de lugar?

Supongo que sí,

Más pronto que tarde.

Pero no estoy mirando más lejos que tú.

En mi imaginación eres sólido.

No sabemos lo que depara el futuro

a una persona como te imaginas ser,

como yo me imagino ser

-Tan adorables

Podemos darnos la mano,

Podemos abrazarnos.

Me detengo aquí

Contigo.

— Poem(s) and drawing by William Eaton.

N.B.: The original version of this poem was substantially revised in May 2023. The original title read: “I am content with you — Je peux m’arrêter — Eres algo sólido”. While again insisting that this version has been rejected or superseded, I here record the English version of that old draft:

I am content with you

For M

I am content with you.

I can stop here with you.

In time will you show me my faith has been misplaced?

I suppose you will.

But I would not look further than you.

You are something solid.

Not only in my imagination.

And though I am uncertain what the future can hold

For any of us

For a person like you

Like me

So lovable

We might hold hands.

For warmth hug.

I am content with you.