First will and testament

The world we live in and by
           but not for
no purpose other than
           the true birth of our self
that work in progress
           each of us carries within
the rose focused on its beauty
           the thrush and the nightingale
defined species of being
           while we must make ourselves
day by day and choice by choice
           whether it is nobler in the mind
and in the body to be true
           and the essence of poetry
to which Marianne Moore
           was by no means averse
anecdote of the soul maybe
           but as far from the banal
as one can get
           and as far into love
as another will permit you
           each incandescent moment
lived for its honesty
           and the pleasure
of shared being
           living in love not for it
loving that equilibrium
           of frenetic surrender
passion of the flesh
           that thrills the soul fibres
of the mind slipping into
           and out of each other

John Lyons