---

Adrienne Rich - Twenty-One Love Poems XI
Work rating: Low

	 
	 
	
XI
	
Every peak is a crater. This is the law of volcanoes,
	making them eternally and visibly female.
	No height without depth, without a burning core,
	though our straw soles shred on the hardened lava.
	I want to travel with you to every sacred mountain
	smoking within like the sibyl stooped over his tripod,
	I want to reach for your hand as we scale the path,
	to feel your arteries glowing in my clasp,
	never failing to note the small, jewel-like flower
	unfamiliar to us, nameless till we rename her,
	that clings to the slowly altering rock—
	that detail outside ourselves that brings us to ourselves,
	was here before us, knew we would come, and sees beyond us.
	 
	 
	 
	 
	 
	 
	 
	 
	 
	 
Source
The script ran 0.009 seconds.