The lips shall now rhapsodic keep

Last (for now!) Philip Freund poem, taken from his 1950 collection; "Private Speech" that I found earlier this year ...

... as you might have noticed, I really do like his work - and I think this is my favourite; the snap is of a Pink Oriental Poppy growing at our Allotment:


Against Delay

To sublimate this worship of
The pale and noctilucent shape
Of body that reclines superb
From glistening thigh to milky nape?

We need but ask the rising heat
Wherein the bones are quickly warmed,
If wisdom lies in light but this
By which our passion is informed.

The flesh a new religion knows,
The lips shall now rhapsodic keep
Their urgent vigil, not to lose
A moment's ecstasy in sleep.

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Philip Freund (1909 - 2007)

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