We propose the Poetry of the naked Eye, the poetry
Of the hairy Chest, the poetry of the bare Head—²
We are builders of a temple, called our body …
We are sculptors & painters, and our material
Is our own Flesh and Blood and Bones.³
How much would this Body have had to
Be Otherwise in order not to be mine?⁴
We are skeletons dancing
Around the Bio-Draperies—⁵
Within the immeasurable palace of
The pure Energy Channels of our body.⁶
We’re just Parts made from imperfect materials:
Sinew, Scar, Cells, Fluid, Fat, and Heart—
Such is the shape we take: our body.⁷
Love my heart for an
Hour—but my bone for a Day.⁸
Your body: a mortal occasion of
Timeless Law is all the word I know—⁹
The body—from which one is not
To be Freed this side of death …¹⁰
¹ Plato’s definition of man
² Nicanor Parra tr. Miller Williams, Manifesto
³ Henry David Thoreau, Walden
⁴ Rae Armantrout, Later
⁵ Olga Ravn tr. Martin Aitken, The Employees
⁶ Padmasambhava tr. Gyurme Dorje, The Tibetan Book of the Dead
⁷ Laura Hershey, Monster Body
⁸ Edith Sitwell, Street Song
⁹ Li-Young Li, Changing Places in the Fire
¹⁰ Philip Roth, American Pastoral