by Alan Altany

Exquisitely passionate,
encompassing aching
energies of intimate-
baring intensities,
oceanic fusion
constantly exploding
without hesitations
or embarrassment,
an ecstatic confusion
of sensual emotions
wildly ransacking
the heart’s echoes,
a craving for worlds
of spontaneous
enchantments
& consuming
wholeness,
momentary addiction
temporary madness
inevitable exhaustion.

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Alan Altany has BA & MA degrees in Catholic theology, and a Ph. D. in religious studies (University of Pittsburgh). After an academic career, he is a semi-retired, septuagenarian professor of Comparative Religions at a small college in Florida. In the past he has also been the founder & editor of a small magazine of poetry (The Beggar’s Bowl), a high school teacher, factory and lawn maintenance worker, hotel clerk, novelist, delivery truck driver, etc. He has published three books of poetry in a series, “Christian Poetry of the Sacred”: A Beautiful Absurdity (2022), The Greatest Longing (2023), and Intimations (2024). His poetry has been published by Tipton Poetry Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Valley Voices, Sand Hill Literary Magazine, The Hong Kong Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Montreal Review, and others. He writes with the steadfast support of his golden retriever, Zeke.