The Litany of the Seven Kisses

by Clark Ashton Smith

April 13, 1921.


I

I kiss thy hands-thy hands. whose fingers are delicate and the pale as the
petals of the white lotus.

II

I kiss thy hair, which has the lustre of black jewels, and is darker than Lethe,
flowering by midnight through the moonless slumber of poppy-scented lands.

III

I kiss thy brow, which resembles the rising moon in a valley of cedars.

IV

I kiss thy cheeks, where lingers a faint flush, like the reflection of a rose
upheld to an urn of alabaster.

V

I kiss thine eyelids, and liken them to the purple veined flowers and close
beneath the oppression of a topic evening, in a land where the sunsets are
bright as the flames of burning amber.

VI

I kiss thy throat, whose ardent pallor is the pallor of marble warmed by the
autumn sun.

VII

I kiss thy mouth, which has the savour and perfume of fruit made moist with
spray from a magic fountain, in the secret paradise that we alone shall fine; a
paradise whence they that come shall nevermore depart, for the waters thereof
are Lethe, and the fruit is the fruit of the tree of Life.