Positive sexual images and ideas can be hard to find. Here are some poems from Wendy Maltz’s bestselling poetry anthologies and some of her favorite quotes on healthy sexuality.
In the early 1990’s sex and relationship therapist Wendy Maltz began a search to find examples of healthy sexual intimacy to share with couples who wanted to learn more. She scoured films, video selections, popular books, and magazines for images that portrayed sex as mutually enjoyable, socially responsible, and physically safe.
Wendy was shocked at how few examples of healthy sex she could find. It wasn’t until she began sifting through and collecting poetry that she discovered “heartcore” poems; poems in which heart connection is at the core of the sexual experience.
Wendy’s quest for healthy sex descriptions eventually lead her to compile and edit two award-winning poetry anthologies: Passionate Hearts: The Poetry of Sexual Love and Intimate Kisses: The Poetry of Sexual Pleasure. These collections inspire and celebrate healthy sexual intimacy.
WOMAN BATHING
by Raymond Carver
Natches River. Just below the falls.
Twenty miles from any town. A day
of dense sunlight
heavy with odors of love.
How long have we?
Already your body, sharpness of Picasso,
is drying in this highland air.
I towel down your back, your hips,
with my undershirt.
Time is a mountain lion.
We laugh at nothing,
and as I touch your breasts
even the ground-
squirrels
are dazzled.
DESIRE
by Connemara Wadsworth
Taking off
my clothes
piece by piece,
I turn to you,
unwrap my body,
feel you trace
its contours
with your fingers.
I am accustomed
to covering,
what I now bare,
watch you waken
and wash me
with your eyes.
I feel the cloth
of your skin,
uncovered,
inviting me in,
feel your breath
warm in my ear.
I lean closer
into you, feel
your blood surge
as you hold me
and I echo
the beat pulling
on us as I wrap
my legs around you
and open as morning
glories do
when the sun
warms them.
TWIN FLAMES
by James Broughton
Embers of night flare up afresh
when you ignite the morning in my arms
and kindle the familiar hearth of love
Year after year we have warmed our lives
around the mystery of mutual fire
that heats our domain of risk and rapture
Whenever scorched however scarred
we hearten heal reconflagrate
Twin flames ever in blissful blaze.
from Intimate Kisses:
THE ENJOYMENT
by Anon
Ye gods! the raptures of that night!
What fierce convulsions of delight!
How in each other’s arms involved
We lay confounded and dissolved!
Bodies mingling, sexes blending,
Which should be most lost contending,
Darting fierce and flaming kisses,
Plunging into boundless blisses,
Our bodies and our souls on fire,
Tossed by a tempest of desire
Till with utmost fury driven
Down, at once, we sunk to heaven.
AFTER NEW HAMPSHIRE
by Rosemary Klein
Folded into each other,
origami hearts, love
knots. Each time
I never believe
we will get any closer.
Afternoon lowers
her eyes as dusk
steals across the vision
of us, still touching.
Silk light.
Silk laughter.
My body floods
its boundaries.
You hold me through
each shudder, each
moan, my head tucked
into your chest, my legs
wrapped around your body,
my body filled with light,
my body light. Past
freedom and individuality
and the delight of my own
opinions, beyond serenity
and rock n’ roll, there is
happiness and I have found
its natural habitat beneath
your kiss and only
in your arms.
LOVE POEM
by Sarah Brown Weitzman
From here those slaps of color unravel
form you said and stepped back
from the Monet to see the separate strokes
fall into water and lilies again.
Shards of light take the eye to blossoms
pale as breasts. Sky, leaf, water, flower
merge and waver, blur then clear
as each takes something from the other
to reflect or repeat so that not a single
moment is preserved but several.
Later in the splay of late afternoon
we repeat that painting.
The spread blooms of our bodies
blend and shift and merge again until
we know as Monet knew in the crystal rush
of water over the sun-glazed lilies
the radiance of an instant.
