Lilith by Justin Ehrlich

The atmosphere vibrates with soft

Voluptuous mists risen from

Insincere poppies. As I sleep

She scans the dance of colours on

My eyelids and assumes the form

Of unattainable desires.

Wantonly twisting golden hair

She stitches images infused

With rapturous prescience.

I see my own reflection dazed,

Imprisoned by the painted edge

Of her abominable eye;

A coldness seizes my rib-cage

As I realise with bitterness,

She is the burden of my dreams.


Lady Lilith (with opium poppy), Rossetti, 1864-68

 

Justin Ehrlich writes from London, “I discovered this site a few years ago while I had a bit of a Crowley phase, and have since found it useful for reading the works of AOS, works I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise.” You can find Justin over at Luminous Decay and this piece was originally published in Dark Gothic: Resurrected. You can find many Crowley works in the Libri of Aleister Crowley, and several selections of art and writing by and about Austin Osman Spare in another section of the library.

Consider also:

  1. “Horribly useless, this business called life. What does it all matter, when love is gone? And who can hold love? Oh, misery! misery! And still so many years to live. To live alone.”
  2. “I must not stoop and take my ease, Or touch the body lithe and thin. Bright body of the myriad smiles, Sweet serpent of the lower life, The smooth silk touch of thee defiles, The lures and languors of a wife. Slip to the floor, I must not turn: There is a lion in the way! The star of morning rise and burn: I seek the dim supernal day!”
  3. “Their sighs attract the unsubstantial shapes Of other women, and their kisses burn Cold on the lips whose purple blood escapes, A thin chill stream; they feel not nor discern, Nor love’s low laugh return.”
  4. “MISTRESS, I pray thee, when the wind Exults upon the roaring sea, Come to my bosom, kissed and kind And sleep upon the lips of me!”
  5. Hermetic Library Newsletter #91