"They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains
the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent.

All the whales in the wider deeps, hot are they, as they urge
on and on, and dive beneath iceburgs.
the right whales, the sperm-whales, the hammer-heads, the killers
there they blow, there they blow, hot wild hot breath out of the sea!
And they rock, and they rock, through the sensual ageless ages
on the depths of the seven seas,
and through the salt they reel with drunk delight
and the tropics tremble they with love
and roll with massive, strong desire, like gods.
Then the great bull lies up against his bride
in the blue deep bed of the sea, as the mountain, in the zest of life:
and out of the inward roaring of the inner red ocean of whale-blade
the long tip reaches stron, intense, like the maelstrom-tip, and comes to rest
in the clasp and the soft, whild clutch of a she-whale's fathomless body.

And over the bridge of the whale's strong phallu, linking the wonder of whales
the burning archangels under the sea keep passing, back and forth
keep passing, archangeslof bliss
from him to her, from her to him, great Chreubim
that wait on whales in mid-ocean, suspended in the waves of the sea
great heaven of whales in the waters, old hierarchies.

And enormous mother whales lie dreaming suckling their whale-tender young
and dreaming with strange whale eyes wide openin the waters of the beginning and the end
And bull-whales gather their women and whale-calves in a ring
when danger threaten, on the surface of the ceaseless flood
and range themselves like a great fierce Seraphim facing the threat
encircling their huddled monsters of love.
And all this happens in the sea, in the salt
Where God is also love, but without words:
and Aphrodite is the wife of whales
most happy, happy she!

And Venus among the fishes skips and is a she-dolphin
she is gay, delighted porpoise sporting with love and the sea
she is the female tunny-fish, round and happy among the males
and dense with happy blood, dark rainbow bliss in the sea."


Whales Weep Not
--D.H. Lawrence (poet)