The List: Erotic Poetry

And down his mouth comes to my mouth! and down
His bright dark eyes come over me, like a hood
Upon my mind! his lips meet mine, and a flood
Of sweet fire sweeps across me, so I drown
Against him, die, and find death good.

~D.H. Lawrence

What better time to indulge in a bit of erotic-love poetry than Valentine's Day? I've always been drawn to poets who are able to turn the most carnal, bodily aspects of love into something utterly transcendent. Historically, erotic poetry has been able to stay under-the-radar and escape censorship in the western world, even when its contents were graphically sexual. Unlike the novel, which has seen its fair share of censoring, poetry seems to quietly evade accusations of pornography. I recently learned that beat poet Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem "Howl" was one of the only poems brought to trial in the U.S. for obscenity. The charges were dropped, because the judge decided the poem had "redeeming social importance." How fascinating to think that what one person considers smut, another person considers an important expression of very human experiences...

::Here are some of my favorite erotic poems/poets, and while they certainly seem tame to us today, they still manage to speak to us in a beautifully carnal way!

• Charles Algernon Swinburne's decadent "Love and Sleep."
• The erotic lyrics of the ancient Greek poetess Sappho.
• Walt Whitman's virile "I Sing the Body Electric."
• D.H. Lawrence's sexy, rustic "Love on the Farm" {one of my all-time favorites}.
• ee cumming's ode to the act of love: "i like my body when it is with your body."
• The lesbian lyrics of {two women lovers with one name} Michael Field.
• The desperate longing of the late Victorian poet Charlotte Mew.

**What are some of your favorite love/erotic poems?? Why not have a private poetry reading...just you and your honey??

Happy Weekend of Love, my Dears!