ONE DEFENSE

In Memoriam
Walton Ellis Mangum

                    Knowing how the desire for love

                    deceives us, passing for love itself,

                    I offer, if I need one,
                    one defense: 

                    Beauty calls for embodiment
                    as music in a man’s mind
                    demands to be heard, being
                    another mode of being,
                    and, in the hearing,
                    another consciousness
                    that we exist. 

                    So beauty, sculpted form in space,
                    or act, or word, 
                    exists to be embraced, to be
                    become— 

                    Or else,

                    O solitary figures of perfection, 
                    moving across our lives 
                    like secret messengers,

                    How the desire for love 
                    can fool us!  Then
                    (and this is my defense)
                    we go around in circles, blind
                    eyes turned inward.



Top image from http://academicnudes19thcentury.blogspot.com/2010_10_17_archive.html 

Middle image from http://deadlifts-and-derrida.tumblr.com/post/138286751995/beauty

Bottom image from http://tcaperton.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html

ON THE WARM CLIFF SIDE / EL MONTAÑISTA

On the warm cliff side,

between dimpled curves of stone,

stiff fragrant curls of fern

prickle my skin.  As I climb,

Earth tilts like a ponderous wheel

rolling me out over space,

and the emptiness reels.

Clinging, I solder myself

and soar, and sail.

What follows is a version in Spanish:

EL MONTAÑISTA

En el costado cálido del risco,

entre las curvas suaves de la piedra,

espirales fragantes de helechos

erizan mi piel.

Rueda la noria gigantesca de la Tierra,

arrastrándome al borde del abismo . . .

y el vacío gira.

Aferrado, me sueldo al promontorio vivo

que se remonta y vuela conmigo . . .

http ://www.menwitherections .com/post/92046226269/httpmenwitherectionstumblrcom

aom2. blogspot .com, 10 Jan 2012

BEFORE I CONFESS

This poem was written for and about an acquaintance who contracted HIV.

Will you love me, even though
I'm someone you don't quite know?

Will you give me understanding
When I'm unfair and demanding?

Will you love me in spite of
The childish fear behind my love?

Will you love and want me still
When I'm old and poor . . . or ill?

Wait--will you love me if I say
. . . What I may not . . . or I may . . .

Will you love me anyway?
_