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Comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love
          —Song of Solomon

scent of myrrh on the handles

            when oil is in the lock

silken is his mouth

            when he is hard upon me

young heart, green bed,

            his fingers are in the stream

he eats of the bitter honey

            the sweetness of cherry

sacrament of the blood

            and of its winding

sacrament of arrival

            and of its binding

expert in earth, eager in flesh

            he falls upon me and feasts

the watchmen have not seen him

            nor the owl in her nest

his darkness at noon

            among the white buildings

a hand that was stone

            builds the inner temple

sacrament of what is written

            on the table of the heart

blueness of the wound

            where he has placed his kiss

Source: Poetry (March 2011).

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MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

This poem originally appeared in the March 2011 issue of Poetry magazine

• His death in Benares
  by Kabir
• How do you
  by Kabir
• Plucking your eyebrows
  by Kabir

• March 2011 Table of Contents
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More about this poem

Biography

Poet, editor, and translator Paul Hoover is the author of over a dozen collections of poetry including, The Novel: A Poem (1991), Totem and Shadow: New & Selected Poems (1999), Winter (Mirror) (2002), Edge and Fold (2006), Sonnet 56 (2009) In Idiom and Earth (En el idioma y en la tierra) (2012), which was translated by María Baranda and published by Conaculta Press in Mexico, and desolation : souvenir (2012).  He has also . . .

Continue reading this biography

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Poems by Paul Hoover

• God’s Promises
• Have You Eaten of the Tree?
• The Dry Bones
• The Watchman of Ephraim
• To the Choirmaster

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Poem Categorization

SUBJECT Love, Desire, Romantic Love, Infatuation & Crushes, Realistic & Complicated

POET’S REGION U.S., Western

Poetic Terms Free Verse

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Related

Audio

• Poem of the Day: The Dry Bones
• The Poetry Magazine Podcast: Expert in Earth, Eager in Flesh
• Poem of the Day: House of Cedar, Rafters of Fir
• The Poetry Magazine Podcast: Iamb What Iamb
• Poem of the Day: The Watchman of Ephraim

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