By Kahalu Ngombo
As often as not, physical attraction between a man and a woman becomes wide awake. When it does, one experiences great passionate desire as the mind becomes preoccupied with the man or woman so desired.
This desire was awake in Samson and Delilah, in Romeo and Juliet and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the wind. Needless to say everyone is capable of experiencing passionate desire. That is from kids to the elderly.
Most people experience lust and conditional love. For the most part, these are one-time relationships with no strings attached. However, some, commonly called affairs are of longer duration. All the same, both are fraught with casual sex, multiple partners and heartbreaks.
In a time when AIDS has loomed large, as relationships falter and as peers tell us of their interesting love affairs, it is wise to keep our passionate desires in check. But it requires a great feat of self control. For many, even some Christians, fail to overcome temptations that come into play.
To bottle up our desires, we need to avoid possible sights and sounds and situations that well up our sexual appetite. A case in point is Joseph’s flight from Potiphar’s wife. Another is that of Job. Job decided to make a covenant with his eyes so that he did not get excited when they fell on a young woman. In Job 31:1, Job says, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman?”
In our case, we should not only make covenants with our eyes but also our ears, our mouths and every part of our bodies. More so our spirits and souls. The point is responsible and innocent love can only play itself out in a marital setting. Reasons being sexual relationships involve both physical and spiritual elements that can be good or bad on the part of the individual.
For this reason, in Song of Solomon 2:7, it is written: “I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the does of the field, do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.”
As with when it becomes wide awake, many books abound. A Zambian, Henry Mpundu Salimu, has just published a book on the subject. In his debut poetry book, Deep Sleep, which is expected in Zambian bookstores this October, Salimu presents a first person narration of awakened innocent love.
Written in an intimate tone, he uses lovely words to detail thoughts and feelings that awaken when one falls in love. His brand of poetry is designed to warm the hearts of all who think in terms of romantic love, whether Christian or not. And, again, whether a lover of poetry or not.
Deep Sleep has nine poems, one of which carries the same title as the book. They are essentially conversations between a man and woman though only one of them addresses the other in each poem. In the poem ‘Deep Sleep’, the male character is amazed at the captivating nature that God has put in his lover. He says, “Whenever I am with you, I always lose my equilibrium. I can’t solve this maze. Its either I act crazy, foolish or do something beyond my capability.”
The possible consumer complaint against the book is the number of pages. It has 20 pages from cover to cover, with the poems occupying half the book. Priced at 35,000 Kwacha (7.37 US dollars), it is a matter of thinking in terms of opportunity costs and benefits. Otherwise the book is of fair overall quality and will surely awaken passionate desires.
