TO LAYLAH EIGHT-AND-TWENTY <br /> <br />Lamp of living loveliness, <br />Maid miraculously male, <br />Rapture of thine own excess <br />Blushing through the velvet veil <br />Where the olive cheeks aglow <br />Shadow-soften into snow, <br />Breasts like Bacchanals afloat <br />Under the proudly phallic throat! <br />Be thou to my pilgrimage <br />Light, and laughter sweet and sage, <br />Till the darkling day expire <br />Of my life in thy caress, <br />Thou my frenzy and my fire, <br />Lamp of living loveliness! <br /> <br />Thou the ruler of the rod <br />That beneath thy clasp extends <br />To the galaxies of God <br />From the gulph where ocean ends, <br />Cave of dragon, ruby rose, <br />Heart of hell, garden-close, <br />Hyacinth petal sweet to smell, <br />Split-hoof of the glad gazelle, <br />Be thou mine as I am thine, <br />As the vine's ensigns entwine <br />At the sacring of the sun, <br />Thou the even and I the odd <br />Being and becoming one <br />On the abacus of God! <br /> <br />Thou the sacred snake that rears <br />Death, a jewelled crest across <br />The enchantment of the years, <br />All my love that is my loss. <br />Life and death, two and one, <br />Hate and love, moon and sun, <br />Light and darkness, never swerve <br />From the norm, note the nerve, <br />Name the name, exceed the excess <br />Of thy lamp of loveliness, <br />Living snake of lazy love, <br />Ithyphallic that uprears <br />Its Palladium above <br />The enchantment of the years!<br /><br />Aleister Crowley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/colophon/
