The Poetry of Kissing

In many, the title of this volume is redundant. After all, kissing is poetry. The kiss is perhaps the most loving and intimate moment there is. It is among our most soothing and treasured memories, and perhaps most erotic.

The Poetry of Kissing is not about the kiss of a mother to her child's scraped knee, or the father to his baby's head as he settles down to sleep. When the poets here talk of the kiss, they describe the longing and desire, the want and hunger to be part of something that connects them to another, and transcends all manner of reason and decorum. That first kiss can be something so anticipated that it is almost electric; a thousand volt charge of tension and pleasure. It is also addictive. Who has not wanted to continue kissing? Who has not kissed a lover in a way that shrugs off convention in the taming of desire? Who has not kissed, or been kissed by surprise, in wonderment, or even on a street corner in the pouring rain? The kiss takes us to places where our dreams want to go.