POLITICALLY INCORRECT. SORRY.

The thing that drove me to distraction here was not just the fact that I lay awake in a room crowded with young men, as described, but with my two "grown" sons asleep in a bunk next to me.

SCOTS HOSTEL
5 August 00

I lay among young men and yearned to touch them—
How many years since last I lay to sleep
Among such promise of the body’s glory,
Which no man can possess or hope to keep.
What glimpses of the animal were given
Where here a chest and there a knee or arm
Exposed the body’s echoing of heaven
And gilt each feature shown with hunger’s charm.
What thoughts did I return to, as to vomit—
Of true love and conversion not a trace—
In thought I seized and grappled—climbed upon it—
And then— I saw not features, but a face.

And then— I smiled, to think I would work woe,
Here where He dwells, and angels come and go.