In the Grand Manner

I
They have shown her facing, from a range of barley
at times and from the patio. She wrings a sprig
of mint in a walled garden; behold, the dimple that
none reckoned on, careless burdens of plums, of parsley.
I thank those gentlemen: many an old master
is needed if there shall be love. I thank Velasquez
more: for a woman turned away may be imposed
without disparagement in a prospect of grandeur.

Where this high cliff joins the deep sunlight I see you
beside me spread aside in the buoyant deer-moss;
I sit cross-legged nibbling juniper berries
and I call you my Louella now, now Ella Lou.
Far down from one rim is the bay with flocks of teal,
and we might look down shafts of cedar the other way;
I feel a privileged one who waits, remembering
the special pleasure of youth is of self-denial.

Since Velasquez and the masters have hexed my eyes
I see you now even in this northern grandeur;
following the hip I watch the flank’s retirement
and watch the nape declining from the crescent shoulder.
But where your shoulder ripples back to fill the arm
is a slight plump area, probably nameless:
in all but rarest postures that form vanishes
into wherever you withdraw inopportune breaths.
You might not wonder it is there I, stretching forward,
beseeching you be motionless, hold the wide kiss;
I wonder mightily for my part for what purpose
have I stretched a thousand miles between the two of us.
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