THE STEPS

            After Paul Valéry

You are not the clutch of silence,

placed gently against the blessed,

as towards a knowledge that sleep

is the patina mooting its practices. 

Nor clear with sacraments’ shade,

that are soft but like unrestricting!

Good in everything I can divine 

comes to me at bases like these.

If, in what manners you’ve tread,

you are prepared for some relief,

as at home in my own beliefs 

the fare of which our kissing is,

do not hastily tender this act,

delicate in what it is, not to be;

because I have you attended so,

my heart moves under your feet.

Michael Kindellan has published three chapman books: Charles Baudelaire (Bad Press, 2005): Wor is Born, with Reitha Pattison (Arehouse, 2006):  Not Love (Barque, 2009).  He lives in London. 

(Featured in NP 14, which you can purchase from our shop for 3 pounds including postage and delivery: http://nakedpunch.com/site/issues)