Nakedness

Only the human species
           knows what it is
to be naked
           to get naked
to have knowledge
           of one’s body
or of another’s
            : an intimacy
of thought and feeling
           so common and yet so private
the making of love
           just as a world is made
a love-creation
            the rich cluster of charms
in the human body
           congress the primeval process
a love-life fed with language
           with words and whispers
into her slumbering ear
           and in loving we bear
the ultimate witness
           to ourselves
gestures pared back
           to the essential
so as to reach the intrinsic truth
           buried within us
to fall in love
           is to rise up

John Lyons