that not anything save love

can assuage

even for a little while

the elements of his body and life

which I assuage and nurture, stimulate and relax.

This beloved is with me in God, which is to say in nature, in the world, in inspiration, in hard times and good times, when it rains or when we ascend the Berkeley Hills and look over the Bay and when we talk of meeting later

in Istanbul, Luxor and Montevideo.

My lover is my polarity and affinity and I am these for him; What fortune!

Our hands linger in each other's

and I have spent

forty-five minutes loving just one ear,

going over and around and into this one ear,

part of my hand

pressing the curly, strong hair,

some of my palm

receiving constantly the strength of his hair,

my fingers on the warm-hot ear; sometimes

I took all of it in one loving hand

with my arms around this miracle representation of all and everything.

by Manfred Wise

17