Lust Is No More Physical than Love

Hear me read
the poem as
an MP3 file.

Alpha List

Love Poems

Philosophical
Poems

Sonnets

About This
Site

Poems for
Free

Lust is no more physical than love.
Feeling is the fuel that feeds that fire,
A flame that might, controlled, pure pleasure prove.
The language of the psyche is desire.
One is dragged towards ecstasy by need:
For power, vengeance, salience, self-esteem.
One wants sometimes to make one's landscape bleed,
To penetrate the borders of the dream.
Lust's a fantasy, sometimes made real,
Oft sustained by willful ignorance.
The more one sees, the more one's apt to feel
A need for what the love of others grants.
Within love's bounds, lust can be a joy;
Outside of love, it is a child's toy.