The intimacy of love making as made by couples in love is the object of this theme.
It is passing from one state to another, mind through to body through to soul. Every part of either body is a cavernous surface on which desire spreads then echoes. His sound is her sound and all is delicious. It is one sense overtaking another, then being overwhelmed by a third. When contemplation precedes and follows every kiss till kissing itself is a contemplation. When each caress is love and love grows till it bellows.
He knows everything that she contains and can contain and will contain. She knows it about him, too. Sex contains all.
Rage, frustration, desire, sorrow, joy, peace, nostalgia, comfort, truth, failing and achievement, laughter and shame and violence. To feel at once entirely vulnerable and stronger than ever before. He kisses her and she kisses him; he holds her and she holds him. He says, ‘Kiss me’, she says, ‘Hold me’. And ‘hurt me’… and ‘forgive me’… and ‘sweeten me’…
It is loving, hating, being man and woman and child and fully grown. Subject and object; actor and audience. It is a depth and variety of understanding that are the depth and variety of love.
A secret if ever there was one. Not because they won’t tell but because can’t be told the vivid reminiscences of what they lived and are living: the fear, the hope, the self-doubt and the shared doubt, the voyage, and that knowing, sumptuous gaze.
Olivier Holmey
Porto, 25 April 2015
Our selection of poetry, music and art for all five weeks of this theme is available by clicking on the tabs above or through the links below:
I. Week One
II. Week Two
III. Week Three
IV. Week Four
V. Week Five