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The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle—
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea—
What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?
Terry Collett Apr 2013
A woman’s touch. Yet to
another woman applied,
towelling dry, older, hands

slightly more worn, eyeing
the young woman, secretly
wishing. The young woman,

naked except the pink bow
in brown hair, thinking of
something other, not sensing

anything of the woman drying,
the touch, the towel, is far
from her thoughts, maybe some

boyfriend and his recent deeds
or words or both. The bath
had been refreshing, the water

just right, the older woman
always has it so, the towel laid
out, the soap prepared, washing

the back, places she cannot reach.
The older woman seems to take
her time, drying each area of skin

with some daintiness, a delicate
touch, wanting more maybe or
nothing very much. The younger

woman, feeling dryer, more in
touch with self, thoughts ordered
into place, takes no notice of the

other woman’s rub of ******* or
under arms, no thought of hers at
all, no grace, no charms, the recent

boyfriend, he who made to her such
passionate entering and kissings,
she feels like a fatted calf, some well

stuff bird, pleased with her self, her
sense of need fulfilled, the pleasure
dome having been reached and done.

The older woman drying now the thighs
has no wish to end her task, no other love
or want, except what’s there before her eyes.
Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                            Your Poems as Love-Letters to God


          Gregariousness is always the refuge of mediocrities, whether
          they swear by Soloviev or Kant or Marx. Only individuals
          seek the truth, and they break with those who don’t love it
          sufficiently.

                 -Doctor Zhivago, p. 9 in the Pantheon edition


You live, you have lived, and you will live
And because you live you will engrave your life
In elegant scansion, in noble lines
That shape chaos into beauty and truth

Not into metal or rocks or wood
But flung into Creation in gratitude
For the sacred life you have been given
For the strength of your love and thoughts

Each little line is a gathering-gift to God
Baptized in the Jordan and in the Hippocrene
To God, and to the Muses who smile on you
And to great Mysteries beyond the stars

Each little line is a gathering-gift to all
To read in the light of seven sacred lamps
The wisdom of patience and pilgrimage
Beside the banks of the river you know

You live, and so you write, you must, you must:
For there is meaning in tumbling in the grass
On a summer day that will live forever
Helped along in your written remembrancing

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of laughter and puppy-kissings and grass-stained jeans
And that is why you must write it all down
For others in intellectually-sharpened rhythms

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of love, of deeper kissings in the dark
Emotional confusions gone crazy-wild
Until they are sensed through crafted verse

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of recruit training and sometimes war
The joys of learning wisdom from great books
Tentatively shaping your own new knowledge worthily

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of leafy springs and apple-green summers
Golden autumns and winters of blue
Writing them as hymns of gratitude

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of children in a home modest in wealth
But rich and layered in love, work, and prayer
“Is this poem about me?!” Oh, yes, child

You live an eternal meaning in the why
Of lonely nights, hospital stays, mistakes
Disappearing dreams, disappointed hopes
Memories of friends buried in the dust

You live, you have lived, and you will live
And because you live you will engrave your life
Love-letters as your gift to Creation
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti
m Feb 2018
21
February chills,
High kills,
Soft touches of skin
On skin. Breathing
Deep in the dim
Light of streetlamps
Borrowing needles
And comfort and stamps
To pretend
To end
To exist
With cysts and blood
And tears and floods
Of masochistic love
Of lonely tugs
Heartstrings and
Missings and kissings
And darkness
Always, always,
Darkness
JoJo Feb 2021
I was two
Maybe three
When the touching game was introduced to me

I touch you here
You touch me there
It won't hurt he swears

The older I got
Be a good little girl
I touch you here
You touched me there
You said I was pretty and touched my hair

I became a school girl
I kissed you here
You kissed me there
It's our little secret
A daddy and daughter pair
I kiss you here
You kiss me there
Daddy licks and bites me everywhere

Shhhh, don't tell mommy
I kiss you here
You kiss me there
It's only our game
We can not share

Daddy likes my body
Now that I'm blossoming
Kissings me here
Bites me there
Shhhh don't be scared

******* me
With no care
Daddy wants to play the touching game

Now the rules have changed
We are in level 3
Daddy touches me everywhere

Mommy went to work
Daddy came in my room
He laid me in my bed
Told me I hung the moon

******* me with every touch
Babygirl, daddy promises this won't hurt much.

He spreads my legs for my stuffed animals to see.
He stuck straight in me
I whined and cried
It hurt like hell
He pushed and ******
It felt like a bomb inside of me.

Entering me here
Entering me there
Tears had fell

Touching me here
Touching me there
I couldn't move you see
As he collapsed on top of me.

I couldn't win you see
The game was meant for daddy
Not me...
There was a time when men were only kisses
And then only adorned
with the necessary tools
for the act.
A bunch of mouths swam in the ocean then.
lukewarm ocean.

Then came the eyes and we said
"Fine!"
And all men then were adorned
with eyes
That could see
the infinite deep sea
filled with wondering eyes.

We stopped our kissings here and there
to invent nose, cranium
ears and hairs
Bodies to long for, reasons to care---
We stopped our kissings here and there.

And now everyday I wake up different
Work to do
bodies to long for,
I think of you and say
"what's more?"
we had invented thoughts before
and now whispered on concrete steps
of the cities we had to make,
I sit and see the sandy shores
where everything was and came from.

There, new things keep on being formed.
gently flowing down silken sun
through violet waves, deepest whispers,
exchanged among the blue hours
between people---alone or more---
stricken to wait, hope and welcome
what crashed frozen on golden shores.

And what came through these dim colors
was the desire to care for
and make meaning from separate things
tied together in loosen strings
by unknowing and clumsy hands.

*

My love,
All your parts float in some vivid ether
only attached by matter
dating back
to those days of kisses.

And so you see
when I kiss you here and there
and touch your arms, your face, your hair
I'm only making sure
the knots are there
behind the parts that makes you whole.
and each new things the world brings forth
to you upon your sandy shore
I will make sure to tie it all,
my love, of changing form.
Lawrence Hall Apr 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                                      The Lord of One’s Love

                                    Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 26

The lord of one’s love can only be God
For whom all things are loved in gratitude
Kissings as well as blessings, and all are blessed
Presented before the Altar and the Throne

The lord of one’s love can only be God
All other lords are merely utilitarian
Well-honored as long as they know their place
Kings and queens, bishops, happy lovers, and dreams

The lord of one’s love can only be God
That no other love or lord can be
Meme-ing from Shakespeare's Sonnet 26

— The End —