Without Fear And Trembling

13 January 2026

https://poems.culturing.net/2026/01/without-fear-and-trembling/

I will repent, and I will swear to be chaste,
but is the promise hollow? What stands under it?
I would love with body as well as soul, and yet I know
that bodies are messy and have their own laws
no matter the controls we foist upon them. What can I promise?
To make love to you and you only? But making love
is not the only kind of sex. Are all others forbidden?
I would like to say yes, but I doubt my own willpower
against the imperatives of flesh, the strict tensions
demanding release, and the damage to health should I disobey.
What then can I say? I would love you, and truly,
and bodily, but not with a promise to bend my own body
by a rule that would damage it. I do not need other women,
but I do need freedom, and understanding, as I find my salvation
without fear and trembling.