1.

I crush her against me. I want to be part of her. Not just inside her but all around her. I want our rib cages to crack open and our hearts to migrate and merge. I want our cells to braid together like living thread.

— Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies. 

2.

Sonnet XII

Full woman, fleshly apple, hot moon,
thick smell of seaweed, crushed mud and light,
what obscure brilliance opens between your columns?
What ancient night does a man touch with his senses?

Loving is a journey with water and with stars,
with smothered air and abrupt storms of flour:
loving is a clash of lightning-bolts
and two bodies defeated by a single drop of honey.

Kiss by kiss I move across your small infinity,
your borders, your rivers, your tiny villages,
and the genital fire transformed into delight

runs through the narrow pathways of the blood
until it plunges down, like a dark carnation,
until it is and is no more than a flash in the night.

— Pablo Neruda, Selected Poems.

3.

Where did love begin? What human being looked at another and saw in their face the forests and the sea? Was there a day, exhausted and weary, dragging home food, arms cut and scarred, that you saw yellow flowers and, not knowing what you did, picked them because I love you?

— Jeanette Winterson, Lighthousekeeping.

4.

love is the voice under all silences,
the hope which has no opposite in fear;
the strength so strong mere force is feebleness:
the truth more first than sun more last than star

— e. e. cummings

5.

Your love is a sea,
and I am its trawler—
harbored in dreams,
I ride out night’s storms;
unanchored, I drift through the hours before morning,
dreaming the solace of your warm breasts,
pondering your riddles, savoring the feel
of the explosions of your hot, saline breath.

—Michael R, Burch, from Floating

NOTE – I’m reposting this from several years ago, but adding this last poem and image.

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When Things Go Missing

Three journeys. Three romances. Three ways to fall in love.

“WOW! I absolutely loved When Things Go Missing. Every part of this thought-provoking novel was engaging, and the voices that told the story really captured me . . . I really enjoyed seeing each of the three main characters grow into different versions of themselves. I have already recommended it to several people.” Valerie Tingle, Rockin’ Riverview Book Club Reader, Paso Robles, California

Get your copy at at Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon AUS, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble and other major outlets. Available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats.