{"id":114,"date":"2008-08-24T18:12:47","date_gmt":"2008-08-24T23:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/mojo\/?p=114"},"modified":"2025-08-01T22:53:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T03:53:43","slug":"little-lion-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/blog\/little-lion-face\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Little Lion Face&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thmazing.blogspot.com\/2008\/04\/may-swenson.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Thmazing posted this poem by May Swenson<\/a> (1919-1989), Mormon poet, in April.  I don\u2019t usually \u201cget\u201d poetry, but I sure as heck got this and it is \u2026 beautiful.  I\u2019m going to have to invest some time in her work. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"normal\"><p>\nLittle lion face<br \/>\nI stopped to pick<br \/>\namong the mass of thick<br \/>\nsucculent blooms, the twice <\/p>\n<p>streaked flanges of your silk<br \/>\nsunwheel relaxed in wide<br \/>\ndilation, I brought inside,<br \/>\nplaced in a vase. Milk <\/p>\n<p>of your shaggy stem<br \/>\nsticky on my fingers, and<br \/>\nyour barbs hooked to my hand,<br \/>\nsudden stings from them <\/p>\n<p>were sweet. Now I\u2019m bold<br \/>\nto touch your swollen neck,<br \/>\nput careful lips to slick<br \/>\npetals, snuff up gold <\/p>\n<p>pollen in your navel cup.<br \/>\nStill fresh before night<br \/>\nI leave you, dawn\u2019s appetite<br \/>\nto renew our glide and suck.  <\/p>\n<p>An hour ahead of sun<br \/>\nI come to find you. You\u2019re<br \/>\ntwisted shut as a burr,<br \/>\nneck drooped unconscious, <\/p>\n<p>an inert, limp bundle,<br \/>\na furled cocoon, your<br \/>\nsun-streaked aureole<br \/>\neclipsed and dun.  <\/p>\n<p>Strange feral flower asleep<br \/>\nwith flame-ruff wilted,<br \/>\nall magic halted,<br \/>\na drink I pour, steep <\/p>\n<p>in the glass for your<br \/>\nundulant stem to suck.<br \/>\nOh, lift your young neck,<br \/>\nopen and expand to your <\/p>\n<p>lover, hot light.<br \/>\nGold corona, widen to sky.<br \/>\nI hold you lion in my eye<br \/>\nsunup until night.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thmazing posted this poem by May Swenson (1919-1989), Mormon poet, in April. I don\u2019t usually \u201cget\u201d poetry, but I sure as heck got this and it is \u2026 beautiful. I\u2019m going to have to invest some time in her work. Little lion face I stopped to pick among the mass of thick succulent blooms, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[599,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-sex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17453,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/17453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}