Published on Academy of American Poets (https://poets.org)

Of Being Numerous, 32

Only that it should be beautiful, 
Only that it should be beautiful, 

O, beautiful

Red green blue—the wet lips
Laughing

Or the curl of the white shell

And the beauty of women, the perfect tendons
Under the skin, the perfect life

That can twist in a flood
Of desire

Not truth but each other

The bright, bright skin, her hands wavering
In her incredible need

Credit

From New Collected Poems. Copyright © 2002 by Linda Oppen. Used with permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.

Author

George Oppen

Born in 1908, George Oppen was known for both his poetry and his political activism, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1969

Date Published: 2002-01-01

Source URL: https://poets.org/poem/being-numerous-32