The Flourishing

I
The flesh parts wide
A head appears
A hand grabs firm and takes her through
Her limbs are fat
Her face is red
She cries and wails and feels her life
In newness, fullness tests her life
In swinging fists and flails of feeling
Untamed flow, emotion bursting
Bouts and tears, sensation, Life!
All hearts around her, warm, are stirred
Her weary mother cries, "A girl!"
This mother's arms are gently filled
And wonder, wonder, love abound!
This blesséd, blesséd crying sound!

II
The ocean, peaceful, deep and black
Shadows shift beneath the cold
Then with a monstrous
Living force
They send their bodies skyward, flying
Sail through air then crash white water
Titans! Whales!
The awesome grace!
Unbridled presence
Bounding power!
Singing songs so long and shy
While hurling faster into sky!

III
Softness, coolness
Gentle rapture
Water weakens, mercy drift
Pools so pure
And streams so supple
Lust indulges here in peace
And passion is seduced serene
Encased in nakedness
And icy
Touch is everywhere
With crispness
Emptiness, a downward drifting
Lovely darkness, nothing shifting

IV
Weighty ocean
Dormant beast
Filled with murky space
Of thickness
Unconsoling dim and dying
Rays of forceful purple dampen
Little eyes see inky blindness
Surrounding deepness, inward sinking
Pressing ocean
Vast entombment
Trembling skinny, frail and tiny
Flesh of mine so frigid
Helpless
Deeper probing, paralyzing
Sinking stone so smooth and separate
Frozen feelings, heart retreating
Nervous senses start receding

V
Glory raying
Eye aflame
Red with living
Liquid passion
Night is chased away
And waning
Stellar sparks are pale
And fading
Clouds are clothed in glowing
Luster
Sun outsending brilliant
Color
Eye of fire the brilliance raising
Dawn of awe, so soul amazing!

VI
Fire trances, drifting beauty
Mutating redness, twisting, folding
Reaching for the sky with longing
Ever soft consuming, breathing
Out its very essence
Sweeping
Contagious glowing killing creature
Lawless, pure and wrathful fury
Bleeding ghost
Amorphous demon
Seductive, dancing, brilliant shower
Mesmerizing wicked power!

VII
Snowing, sharpness fades to white
Drifting, downward spiral twisting
Tiny fragile bits of newness
Numerous, abundant
Dainty seraph-strewn
Tongue cooling treasures
Freshness filling up the earth
With gentle crisp and lazy pleasures
Soft and lovely clean and precious
Surface, perfect and unbroken
Heat is near but cold is chosen
Hearts are warm and faces frozen!

[1993]