The Best American Erotic Poems Read online

  And what the flower began

  Her own too meager heart

  Had terribly completed.

  She looked and saw the worst.

  And the dog or what it was,

  Obeying bestial laws,

  A coward save at night,

  Turned from the place and ran.

  She heard him stumble first

  And use his hands in flight.

  She heard him bark outright.

  And oh, for one so young

  The bitter words she spit

  Like some tenacious bit

  That will not leave the tongue.

  She plucked her lips for it,

  And still the horror clung.

  Her mother wiped the foam

  From her chin, picked up her comb,

  And drew her backward home.

  (1942)

  AMY LOWELL (1874–1925)

  Anticipation

  I have been temperate always,

  But I am like to be very drunk

  With your coming.

  There have been times

  I feared to walk down the street

  Lest I should reel with the wine of you,

  And jerk against my neighbours

  As they go by.

  I am parched now, and my tongue is horrible in my mouth,

  But my brain is noisy

  With the clash and gurgle of filling wine-cups.

  (1914)

  GERTRUDE STEIN (1874–1946)

  from Lifting Belly

  Kiss my lips. She did.

  Kiss my lips again she did.

  Kiss my lips over and over and over again she did.

  I have feathers.

  Gentle fishes.

  Do you think about apricots. We find them very beautiful.

  It is not alone their color it is their seeds that charm us. We

  find it a change.

  Lifting belly is so strange.

  I came to speak about it.

  Selected raisins well then grapes grapes are good.

  Change your name.

  Question and garden.

  It’s raining. Don’t speak about it.

  My baby is a dumpling I want to tell her something.

  Wax candles. We have bought a great many wax candles.

  Some are decorated. They have not been lighted.

  I do not mention roses.

  Exactly.

  Actually.

  Question and butter.

  I find the butter very good.

  Lifting belly is so kind.

  Lifting belly fattily.

  Doesn’t that astonish you.

  You did want me.

  Say it again.

  Strawberry.

  Lifting beside belly.

  Lifting kindly belly.

  Sing to me I say.

  Some are wives not heroes.

  Lifting belly merely.

  Sing to me I say.

  Lifting belly. A reflection.

  Lifting belly adjoins more prizes.

  Fit to be.

  I have fit on a hat.

  Have you.

  What did you say to excuse me. Difficult paper and scattered.

  Lifting belly is so kind.

  What shall you say about that. Lifting belly is so kind.

  What is a veteran.

  A veteran is one who has fought.

  Who is the best.

  The king and the queen and the mistress.

  Nobody has a mistress.

  Lifting belly is so kind.

  To-day we decided to forgive Nellie.

  Anybody can describe dresses.

  How do you do what is the news.

  Lifting belly is so kind.

  Lifting belly exactly.

  The king and the prince of Montenegro.

  Lifting belly is so kind.

  Lifting belly to please me.

  Excited.

  Excited are you.

  I can whistle, the train can whistle we can hear the whistle,

  the boat whistle. The train is not running to-day. Mary whis-

  tle whistle for the whim.

  Didn’t you say you’d write it better.

  Mrs. Vettie. It is necessary to have a Ford.

  Yes sir.

  Dear Mrs. Vettie. Smile to me.

  I am.

  Dear Mrs. Vettie never better.

  Yes indeed so.

  Lifting belly is most kind.

  What did I say, that I was a great poet like the English only

  sweeter

  When I think of this afternoon and the garden I see what

  you mean.

  You are not thinking of the pleasure.

  Lifting belly again.

  What did I mention when I drew a pansy that pansy and

  petunia both begin with p.

  Lifting belly splendidly.

  We have wishes.

  Let us say we know it.

  Did I say anything about it. I know the tide. We know the

  title.

  Lifting belly is so kind.

  We have made no mistake.

  The Montenegrin family.

  A condition to a wide admiration.

  Lifting belly before all.

  You don’t mean disobedience.

  Lifting belly all around.

  Eat the little girl I say.

  Listen to me. Did you expect it to go back. Why do you do

  to stop.

  What do you do to stop.

  What do you do to go on.

  I do the same.

  Yes wishes. Oh yes wishes.

  What do you do to turn a corner.

  What do you do to sing.

  We don’t mention singing.

  What do you do to be reformed.

  You know.

  Yes wishes.

  What do you do to measure.

  I do it in such a way.

  I hope to see them come.

  Lifting belly go around.

  I was sorry to be blistered.

  We were such company.

  Did she say jelly.

  Jelly my jelly.

  Lifting belly is so round.

  Big Caesars.

  Two Caesars.

  Little seize her.

  Too.

  Did I do my duty.

  Did I wet my knife.

  No I don’t mean whet.

  Exactly four teeth.

  Little belly is so kind.

  What did you say about accepting.

  Yes.

  Lifting belly another lifting belly.

  I question the weather.

  It is not necessary.

  Lifting belly oh lifting belly in time.

  Yes indeed.

  Be to me.

  Did you say this was this.

  Mr. Louis.

  Do not mention Mr. Louis.

  Little axes.

  Yes indeed little axes and rubbers.

  This is a description of an automobile.

  I understand all about them.

  Lifting belly is so kind.

  So is whistling.

  A great many whistles are shrill.

  Lifting belly connects.

  Lifting belly again.

  Sympathetic blessing.

  Not curls.

  Plenty of wishes.

  All of them fulfilled.

  Lifting belly you don’t say so.

  Climb trees.

  Lifting belly has sparks.

  Sparks of anger and money.

  Lifting belly naturally celebrates.

  We naturally celebrate.

  Connect me in places.

  Lifting belly.

  No no don’t say that.

  Lifting belly oh yes.

  Tax this.

  Running behind a mountain.

  I fly to thee.

  Lifting belly.

  Shall I chat.

  I mean pugilists.

  Oh yes trainer.

  Oh yes yes.

/>   Say it again to study.

  It has been perfectly fed.

  Oh yes I do.

  Belly alright.

  Lifting belly very well.

  Lifting belly this.

  So sweet.

  To me.

  Say anything a pudding made of Caesars.

  Lobster. Baby is so good to baby.

  I correct blushes. You mean wishes.

  I collect pearls. Yes and colors.

  All colors are dogs. Oh yes Beddlington.

  Now I collect songs.

  Lifting belly is so nice.

  I wrote about it to him.

  I wrote about it to her.

  Not likely not very likely that they will seize rubber. Not

  very likely that they will seize rubber.

  Lifting belly yesterday.

  And to-day.

  And to-morrow.

  A train to-morrow.

  Lifting belly is so exacting.

  Lifting belly asks any more.

  Lifting belly captures.

  Seating.

  Have a swim.

  Lifting belly excuses.

  Can you swim.

  Lifting belly for me.

  When this you see remember me.

  (1915–1917)

  WALLACE STEVENS (1879–1955)

  Peter Quince at the Clavier

  I

  Just as my fingers on these keys

  Make music, so the selfsame sounds

  On my spirit make a music, too.

  Music is feeling, then, not sound;

  And thus it is that what I feel,

  Here in this room, desiring you,

  Thinking of your blue-shadowed silk,

  Is music. It is like the strain

  Waked in the elders by Susanna.

  Of a green evening, clear and warm,

  She bathed in her still garden, while

  The red-eyed elders watching, felt

  The basses of their beings throb

  In witching chords, and their thin blood

  Pulse pizzicati of Hosanna.

  II

  In the green water, clear and warm,

  Susanna lay.

  She searched

  The touch of springs,

  And found

  Concealed imaginings.

  She sighed,

  For so much melody.

  Upon the bank, she stood

  In the cool

  Of spent emotions.

  She felt, among the leaves,

  The dew

  Of old devotions.

  She walked upon the grass,

  Still quavering.

  The winds were like her maids,

  On timid feet,

  Fetching her woven scarves,

  Yet wavering.

  A breath upon her hand

  Muted the night.

  She turned—

  A cymbal crashed,

  And roaring horns.

  III

  Soon, with a noise like tambourines,

  Came her attendant Byzantines.

  They wondered why Susanna cried

  Against the elders by her side;

  And as they whispered, the refrain

  Was like a willow swept by rain.

  Anon, their lamps’ uplifted flame

  Revealed Susanna and her shame.

  And then, the simpering Byzantines

  Fled, with a noise like tambourines.

  IV

  Beauty is momentary in the mind—

  The fitful tracing of a portal;

  But in the flesh it is immortal.

  The body dies; the body’s beauty lives.

  So evenings die, in their green going,

  A wave, interminably flowing.

  So gardens die, their meek breath scenting

  The cowl of winter, done repenting.

  So maidens die, to the auroral

  Celebration of a maiden’s choral.

  Susanna’s music touched the bawdy strings

  Of those white elders; but, escaping,

  Left only Death’s ironic scraping.

  Now, in its immortality, it plays

  On the clear viol of her memory,

  And makes a constant sacrament of praise.

  (1915)

  WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS (1883–1963)

  Young Sycamore

  I must tell you

  this young tree

  whose round and firm trunk

  between the wet

  pavement and the gutter

  (where water

  is trickling) rises

  bodily

  into the air with

  one undulant

  thrust half its height—

  and then

  dividing and waning

  sending out

  young branches on

  all sides—

  hung with cocoons

  it thins

  till nothing is left of it

  but two

  eccentric knotted

  twigs

  bending forward

  hornlike at the top

  (1927)

  CONRAD AIKEN (1889–1973)

  Sea Holly

  Begotten by the meeting of rock with rock,

  The mating of rock and rock, rocks gnashing together;

  Created so, and yet forgetful, walks

  The seaward path, puts up her left hand, shades

  Blue eyes, the eyes of rock, to see better

  In slanting light the ancient sheep (which kneels

  Biting the grass) the while her other hand,

  Hooking the wicker handle, turns the basket

  Of eggs. The sea is high to-day. The eggs

  Are cheaper. The sea is blown from the southwest,

  Confused, taking up sand and mud in waves,

  The waves break, sluggish, in brown foam, the wind

  Disperses (on the sheep and hawthorn) spray,—

  And on her cheeks, the cheeks engendered of rock,

  And eyes, the colour of rock. The left hand

  Falls from the eyes, and undecided slides

  Over the left breast on which muslin lightly

  Rests, touching the nipple, and then down

  The hollow side, virgin as rock, and bitterly

  Caresses the blue hip.

  It was for this,

  This obtuse taking of the seaward path,

  This stupid hearing of larks, this hooking

  Of wicker, this absent observation of sheep

  Kneeling in harsh sea-grass, the cool hand shading

  The spray-stung eyes—it was for this the rock

  Smote itself. The sea is higher today,

  And eggs are cheaper. The eyes of rock take in

  The seaward path that winds toward the sea,

  The thistle-prodder, old woman under a bonnet,

  Forking the thistles, her back against the sea,

  Pausing, with hard hands on the handle, peering

  With rock eyes from her bonnet.

  It was for this,

  This rock-lipped facing of brown waves, half sand

  And half water, this tentative hand that slides

  Over the breast of rock, and into the hollow

  Soft side of muslin rock, and then fiercely

  Almost as rock against the hip of rock—

  It was for this in midnight the rocks met,

  And dithered together, cracking and smoking.

  It was for this

  Barren beauty, barrenness of rock that aches

  On the seaward path, seeing the fruitful sea,

  Hearing the lark of rock that sings, smelling

  The rock-flower of hawthorn, sweetness of rock—

  It was for this, stone pain in the stony heart,

  The rock loved and laboured; and all is lost.

  (1925)

  EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY (1892–1950)

  I too beneath your moon, almighty Sex,

  Go forth at nightf
all crying like a cat,

  Leaving the lofty tower I laboured at

  For birds to foul and boys and girls to vex

  With tittering chalk; and you, and the long necks

  Of neighbours sitting where their mothers sat

  Are well aware of shadowy this and that

  In me, that’s neither noble nor complex.

  Such as I am, however, I have brought

  To what it is, this tower; it is my own;

  Though it was reared To Beauty, it was wrought

  From what I had to build with: honest bone

  Is there, and anguish; pride; and burning thought;

  And lust is there, and nights not spent alone.

  (1939)

  E. E. CUMMINGS (1894–1962)

  as

  we lie side by side

  my little breasts become two sharp delightful strutting towers and

  i shove hotly the lovingness of my belly against you

  your arms are

  young;

  your arms will convince me, in the complete silence speaking

  upon my body

  their ultimate slender language.

  do not laugh at my thighs.

  there is between my big legs a crisp city.

  when you touch me

  it is Spring in the city; the streets beautifully writhe,

  it is for you; do not frighten them,

  all the houses terribly tighten

  upon your coming:

  and they are glad

  as you fill the streets of my city with children.

  my love you are a bright mountain which feels.

  you are a keen mountain and an eager island whose

  lively slopes are based always in the me which is shrugging, which is

  under you and around you and forever: i am the hugging sea.

  O mountain you cannot escape me

  your roots are anchored in my silence; therefore O mountain

  skilfully murder my breasts, still and always

  i will hug you solemnly into me.

  (1918–1919)

  H. PHELPS PUTNAM (1894–1948)

  Sonnets to Some Sexual Organs

  I

  Female

  Mother of Men, and bearded like a male;

  Loose lips that smile and smile without a face;

  Mistress of vision, paths which cannot fail,