The poem was written after being inspired by a quote from Anais Nin which I felt to be an anthem of my very own soul: "I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger than reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls." - Anais Nin

Leila A. Fortier is a writer, artist, poet, and photographer currently residing on the remote island of Okinawa Japan. Her poetry is known to be a unique hybrid form in which her words are specially crafted into visual form and design, often superimposed over her own multi-medium forms of art, photography, and spoken accompaniment, lending to the full bodied expression and intensity of each piece. Her work has been published in dozens of print and online magazines, reviews, and journals. She has appeared in several books, anthologies, and publications and is the author of Metanoia's Revelation through iUniverse. A complete listing of her works can be found at * http://www.leilafortier.com.

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I want nothing less than poetry

In every expression and exchange
Bring me to the state of equilibrium by swinging wildly in and out of grace
Craving the enrichment of my curiosities

The embellishment of all creativity that concludes in utter exhaustion
Relieve me of my restless queries by means of breathless exploration
Lead me thus, and I shall follow

Blind in joyous naivety

Carefree vulnerability
Yet strip me not of my dimensions

My limitlessness, freedom or intricacies
Let me dive both inward and outward
Expand into multiplicity
Let me paint your world in textures
Ones that you can feel

That you can taste
Like velvet and water

Mink on stone

Or blood and Irish cream
With grandeur, flair and magnificence
Give to me expression that is outside your learned behavior
Beyond your periphery is my playground
I am there with skinned knees, a flower necklace

Opaline eyes, a wicked smile and a single saline tear
All my words are petaled prose with moon beams in my hair
Touch me and I glow in a frosty heat
Lead me not into idle conversation

Lobotomous mundane monotony
There is excitement even in sorrow and the burning of humanity
Meet me here only in nudity

Stripped of judgment and certainty...False pretenses and superficial charm
Bring me fearlessness within your own frailties
The kind of complexity that leads to simplicity
Mystery that brings greater understanding
Strangle inhibitions and blot out banality by means of every extreme
Inhale rapture

And exhale ecstasy
I want nothing less than reverie