Human bodies are much like landscapes.
We have our contours and crevices,
Signs of weathering, history written
Into soil and skin alike.
Some of us are flat land formations
Others are complex, curving hillscapes
Verdant forested or marble smooth.
Clay and bone and watercourse.
The paces we are inhabiting
Inhabit us in turn, as we move
These bodies through localities, as the
Shape of them shapes or motions.
Human bodies are much like landscapes
Revealing to the patient lover
Taking time to know and to season.
Growing into new pleasures.
Do we scrabble hastily over
Each other’s surfaces in search of
Something we don’t even know to name
Or are we slow explorers, willing
Make our Journey a caress of feet,
Know line and lane, hair and tree.
Are we climbing hills to conquer them
Or taking leisurely routes, here and
There for the pleasure of knowing
Present and unpossessing.
Human bodies are much like landscapes.
We should enter knowingly, aware,
With tender hearts and no assumptions,
More inclined to give than take.
To honour and cherish what we find,
And let the landscapes of ourselves be
Changed, softened, even redeemed for us
Through our encounters.