This is a poem called, "Books."
And it's after a professor of mine
that I had at the University of Virginia, Gregory Orr.
One of his books was called Concerning the Book, Which
is the Body of the Beloved.
So this poem is a take on that title,
which I thought was really beautiful and rhythmic.
"Books."
For the bolt of the body in the hinge of the darker door,
when the beloved is a density of threads, concerning all ingots,
all hinges, all belts, concerning the fastness
where the body stalks.
For the fin of white, which is the stalk of the beloved body,
where to stalk, where to ride, where to strike,
where to strike the beloved in the body,
for the armature that strikes at the beloved dark.
Concerning the varieties of striking sounds in the body
for the beloved strike that strikes once,
when the sound of the beloved is the wood of the pear tree,
concerning the tree that roots in the beloved dark.
Concerning the dark that branches
the body, a sound through the branches of the beloved skin.
When the braid of the beloved brushes the collar
bone, when the breath of the beloved appears on a glass--
beloved terraces, beloved darkness, beloved doors,
concerning the door of the body, which is a body's breath.
For the burn of the body at the edge of the door,
near the edge of the body of the beloved.
A breath on the body of the beloved, on the body, which
is a garden of unfolding edges, for the garden where
the beloved unfolds."