Virtue

The mind turns to the body
         the body turns to the mind
to thoughts and to the thing
         to the rose and the thought of it
beauty felt in body and mind
         in what we call the heart
or the soul or the spirit
         and that which we most desire
put a name to that face
         put a name to that love
and so in the pronunciation
         infuse that sound with feeling
so that she is always
         on the tip of my tongue

she inseparable
         from her image
every sinew of her being
         condensed into that sound
beauty in the nature
         of her warm soft body
impossible to remove
         from my mind
and so I touch her
         with my words
envelop her
         in the syllables
of these lines
         express the love
of which enough
         is never enough

John Lyons