ATTENTION

!!INSTRUCTIO N!!
HOW TO READ THIS HYPERTEXT POEM FOR FULL EFFECT
Poetry should be read aloud and love poems should be read by one person to another. The particular form of the hypertext poem which is shown here is difficult to read because of the "Old English" font. This is deliberate. First you should memorize the sonnet which is here presented in small caps.

TOUCH ME NOT LEST I ANSWER UNRESTRAINED
ASSAULTING, BATTERING, PRETENDING LOVE;
OR TOUCH A LOT TO KEEP THE LION TAMED.
OR TOUCH, BUT NOT TOO MUCH, WITH HAND IN GLOVE

TOUCH WITH CARE, EACH TOUCH A VELVET QUESTION
HAVE GESTURES SENSED UNSPOKEN INVITATION?
DO WE RESPECT EACH OTHERS SITUATION?
DO AFFERENT PLEASURES NOW AWAKEN?

TOUCH HANDS AND FEEL THE PULSES OF THE MIND
BRUSH LIPS WITH BREATH TO INTIMATE A KISS
LINK EYE TO EYE TO SEE IF FANCY'S BRED
HEAR MUSIC AS THE MEASURE OF OUR BLISS

TOUCH MY HEART TO STAY IN TOUCH FOR LIFE
TOUCH MY SOUL TO STAY IN TOUCH FOREVER

The hypertext poem(s) and other poems thus memorized, the room darkened, a glass of red wine in each free hand, the sonnet on display, the memorizer recites, the viewer views. The words will spring to life and if mutual afferent pleasure is not experienced then this writer never wrote or no one ever touched or hypertext is for the birds.

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THE ROMANCE OF TOUCH - A SONNET

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The English Sonnet adds melody to plainsong with its extra two syllables of the pentametric line. The last two lines are a lyrical coda that elevates the emotion of the body of the poem to touch our heart and our soul. But you may have missed the more moralisticSijo which highlights the paradox of the joy and pain of love or the Tanka version featuring the silences of Zen or the terse but fundamental core poem which was the genesis of this hypertext poem. Soon Yeh Nai Tsi will produce a version in Chinese poetry and pictorials (certainly Michelangelo's "Hand of God") will appear. But if this is too much at one time return to home with mouse like touch.