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Intimate Kisses: The Poetry of Sexual Pleasure
In 1997, sex therapist and marriage counselor Wendy Maltz, author of the Sexual Healing Journey and coauthor of Private Thoughts, compiled Passionate Hearts, an anthology of "poems that inspire and celebrate healthy sexual intimacy; poems in which heart connection was at the core of the sexual experience." In Intimate Kisses, Maltz follows on the success of Passionate Hearts with a new anthology of poetry that continues her celebration of healthy sexuality and, in the process, turns up the heat.
Intimate Kisses revels in what may be life’s greatest mystery, through some of richest, most celebrated poetry ever written. Included in this anthology are 121 poems by such poets as Marge Piercy, Emily Dickenson, Jelaluddin Rumi, Nikki Giovanni, Anne Sexton, Sharon Olds, Octavio Paz, Molly Peacock, Dorianne Laux, Jane Hirshfield, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Galway Kinnell, and W.S. Merwin, as well as dozens of lesser-known and unpublished poets.
Intimate Kisses revels in what may be life’s greatest mystery, through some of richest, most celebrated poetry ever written. Included in this anthology are 121 poems by such poets as Marge Piercy, Emily Dickenson, Jelaluddin Rumi, Nikki Giovanni, Anne Sexton, Sharon Olds, Octavio Paz, Molly Peacock, Dorianne Laux, Jane Hirshfield, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Galway Kinnell, and W.S. Merwin, as well as dozens of lesser-known and unpublished poets.
203 pages, Paperback
First published December 18, 2000
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224 people want to read
About the author
Wendy Maltz
12 books33 followersWendy Maltz LCSW, DST is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and sex therapist. Her books include The Porn Trap, The Sexual Healing Journey, Private Thoughts, Passionate Hearts, Intimate Kisses, and Incest & Sexuality. Wendy’s highly acclaimed videos are Relearning Touch and Partners in Healing. In 2014 she received the prestigious Carnes Award from the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health. Wendy and Larry Maltz LCSW, an esteemed therapist with more than 30 years of experience, provide consultation and counseling services at Maltz Counseling Associates in Eugene, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 8, 2016
2 to 2.5 stars.
Due to personal reasons, I no longer review books that get less than three stars from me. Besides, I mentioned in my last update what didn't work out for me.
Pre-reading Intimate Kisses:
Critical reading for personal purposes. Just kidding. Or…maybe not. :)
Due to personal reasons, I no longer review books that get less than three stars from me. Besides, I mentioned in my last update what didn't work out for me.
Pre-reading Intimate Kisses:
Critical reading for personal purposes. Just kidding. Or…maybe not. :)
Read
June 29, 2025Friday night, I went out with a group I’m just starting to know.
We started with dinner. The food was bland, but the conversation turned spicy when we started in on dating and marriage. Strippers, dick pics and soul mates, oh my!
Then we headed to the theatre for a musical that subverts every sexual convention. We were up and dancing to “We Got The Beat” by curtain call.
It felt good to laugh and play after my first week back in the salt mines.
But in the midst of our sexually liberated revelries, I kept thinking of this one Sunday sermon my father preached when I was about twelve years old.
So he’s up there, telling horny teenage boys and girls to wait for the one who will make it worth your while. And I’m sitting there, in the front row next to my mother, who’s shouting “amen” in all the right places, but it’s clear she’d rather be at our favorite after-service spot eating fajitas.
Then all of a sudden, Dad veers off course and starts trying to explain WHY these kids should wait. And it’s not hellfire and brimstone.
This forty-something ex-athlete who struggles to express himself beyond basic 1950s man-tasks and sermons on things like integrity, authenticity and staying the course starts trying his hand at poetry.
“Sex is… profound,” he begins, rocking back on his heels, “created by God to mirror the union [YHWH] will eventually have with us.” He’s got our attention now.
“It’s almost…” Dad’s cheeks go pink, his eyes find Mom’s and begin to swim. “Indescribable,” he says in a voice that is really the exhalation of every Sunday he’s ever preached, every child he’s held crying through the night, his own mother and father, his first encounter with what he calls God, and his dreams of fajitas at our favorite spot after service.
Mom blushes. The crowd stirs. And I understand yet again that my turbulent mom and stoic dad have against all odds tapped into something 🎶true blue baby I love you. 🎶
And I’ve just been sitting here, trying to synthesize these disparate views: Sex and The City vs. sacred communion.
I have my own point of view, but I’m not going to share it. Instead, I’ll point you to this collection, which has something for everyone regardless of your own relationship with sex.
It covers the gamut from gauche to glorious, exploring different facets of sexual love: Anticipation & desire, Self-awareness & discovery, Admiration & appreciation, Union & ecstasy, Afterglow & remembrance.
There are 121 poems—18 of which hit home for me.
I’m not rating this work because it feels too subjective, but I do need to slap the editor’s wrist for her hack-job translation of my favorite Octavio Paz poem.
As we segue to the music, I’ll remind you that we all have a context, and mine includes the small number of heavily edited 80s films I was allowed to see growing up.
It’s objectively awful—and I love it just the same.
Book/Song Pairing: Sweet Lovin’ Friends (Dolly Parton, Sylvester Stallone)
We started with dinner. The food was bland, but the conversation turned spicy when we started in on dating and marriage. Strippers, dick pics and soul mates, oh my!
Then we headed to the theatre for a musical that subverts every sexual convention. We were up and dancing to “We Got The Beat” by curtain call.
It felt good to laugh and play after my first week back in the salt mines.
But in the midst of our sexually liberated revelries, I kept thinking of this one Sunday sermon my father preached when I was about twelve years old.
So he’s up there, telling horny teenage boys and girls to wait for the one who will make it worth your while. And I’m sitting there, in the front row next to my mother, who’s shouting “amen” in all the right places, but it’s clear she’d rather be at our favorite after-service spot eating fajitas.
Then all of a sudden, Dad veers off course and starts trying to explain WHY these kids should wait. And it’s not hellfire and brimstone.
This forty-something ex-athlete who struggles to express himself beyond basic 1950s man-tasks and sermons on things like integrity, authenticity and staying the course starts trying his hand at poetry.
“Sex is… profound,” he begins, rocking back on his heels, “created by God to mirror the union [YHWH] will eventually have with us.” He’s got our attention now.
“It’s almost…” Dad’s cheeks go pink, his eyes find Mom’s and begin to swim. “Indescribable,” he says in a voice that is really the exhalation of every Sunday he’s ever preached, every child he’s held crying through the night, his own mother and father, his first encounter with what he calls God, and his dreams of fajitas at our favorite spot after service.
Mom blushes. The crowd stirs. And I understand yet again that my turbulent mom and stoic dad have against all odds tapped into something 🎶true blue baby I love you. 🎶
And I’ve just been sitting here, trying to synthesize these disparate views: Sex and The City vs. sacred communion.
I have my own point of view, but I’m not going to share it. Instead, I’ll point you to this collection, which has something for everyone regardless of your own relationship with sex.
It covers the gamut from gauche to glorious, exploring different facets of sexual love: Anticipation & desire, Self-awareness & discovery, Admiration & appreciation, Union & ecstasy, Afterglow & remembrance.
There are 121 poems—18 of which hit home for me.
I’m not rating this work because it feels too subjective, but I do need to slap the editor’s wrist for her hack-job translation of my favorite Octavio Paz poem.
As we segue to the music, I’ll remind you that we all have a context, and mine includes the small number of heavily edited 80s films I was allowed to see growing up.
It’s objectively awful—and I love it just the same.
Book/Song Pairing: Sweet Lovin’ Friends (Dolly Parton, Sylvester Stallone)
December 18, 2016
If you can make it past the somewhat tortured and very Radio Delilah dual introductions - one of which, God help us, was written by Thomas Moore - of Wendy's Maltz's Intimate Kisses, you're in for a treat.
Kisses, which deals exclusively in the poetry of sexual pleasure, is a remarkably consistent anthology whose works are divided into five sub-themes: anticipation & desire, self-awareness & discovery, admiration & appreciation, union & ecstasy, and afterglow & remembrance. The poets are fairly equally divided between men and women, with a few international offerings (mostly translated from Spanish or Arabic), and, while there's a strong bias toward recency, that almost winds up being a plus, as it guarantees you're not just reading the same old poem about Andrew Marvell trying to get it on.
To be absolutely clear: this is not love poetry. Or, rather, sometimes it's love poetry, but the love part isn't what got these poems in the door, so to speak, so if graphic poetic metaphor is going to put you off your reading, you'd best go back to something a little more Roses are red. If, however, you're looking for a frank celebration of the more physical aspects of affection, this is an intimacy utterly worth sharing.
Kisses, which deals exclusively in the poetry of sexual pleasure, is a remarkably consistent anthology whose works are divided into five sub-themes: anticipation & desire, self-awareness & discovery, admiration & appreciation, union & ecstasy, and afterglow & remembrance. The poets are fairly equally divided between men and women, with a few international offerings (mostly translated from Spanish or Arabic), and, while there's a strong bias toward recency, that almost winds up being a plus, as it guarantees you're not just reading the same old poem about Andrew Marvell trying to get it on.
To be absolutely clear: this is not love poetry. Or, rather, sometimes it's love poetry, but the love part isn't what got these poems in the door, so to speak, so if graphic poetic metaphor is going to put you off your reading, you'd best go back to something a little more Roses are red. If, however, you're looking for a frank celebration of the more physical aspects of affection, this is an intimacy utterly worth sharing.
December 17, 2024
Not very intimate.
July 2, 2008
Love this book. This is what poetry is about. I love poetry that captures a feeling and makes you relate to it. There is a lot of poetry that I HATE. Maybe thats because Im to simple to relate to some old language poetry thats 15 verses long about how a how many shelves a dresser has. Love, Passion and pleasure are the perfect topic for poetry and this book captures it. Wendy Waltz has another collection of poems called PASSIONATE HEARTS that is excellent but I think it must be to recent to show up here.
July 23, 2011
A wonderful book to have on your shelf and pull out whenever you're feeling amorous -- or you want to inspire someone else to.
May 25, 2010
Beautiful poetry in this book that can be so seducing but wonderfully written.
December 11, 2010
Poetry that is so seductive yet so sweet
April 15, 2022
A wonderful book ruined by poems written by men LOL
August 19, 2018
Gorgeous anthology book that talks about sexual love and passion. Not explicit in nature either which adds to the beauty of this poetry collection, the poems capture more of the powerful emotions behind something that can be taken for granted nowadays in our modern world. The poems reflect different desires, and mysteries behind this almost basic human experience. Sex is so much more then what we see in film or other media now. And this Poetry collection helps to capture what makes sex truly special and beautiful. Highly recommended if you are looking for a great poetry book.
December 17, 2024
“What is it that matters?
What is it that lasts?” - Abraham Linik
Some poems I found very beautiful and encapsulating and then others I quite literally wrote “Oh?” “Pardon?” or “No thanks” into my book copy! Writing poetry about sex is so interesting because some of it comes across as reaching for metaphors that don’t quite work while some of it is too blunt. But I suppose that is what makes it a better poem when one has succeeded at not leaning too much into either of these commonalities.
What is it that lasts?” - Abraham Linik
Some poems I found very beautiful and encapsulating and then others I quite literally wrote “Oh?” “Pardon?” or “No thanks” into my book copy! Writing poetry about sex is so interesting because some of it comes across as reaching for metaphors that don’t quite work while some of it is too blunt. But I suppose that is what makes it a better poem when one has succeeded at not leaning too much into either of these commonalities.
October 9, 2024
This erotic poetry anthology is one of the most beautiful I have ever read. The poems show the love that each poetic voice has for their beloved. The poems show that physical union in a pure and beautiful way. It was a delight to read each poem. (Tuesday, October 8th, 2024)
February 9, 2020
Nice selection of poems that shies away from shallow lewdness and truly focuses on high quality and healthy sexual poetry.
February 13, 2020
I grabbed this off my shelf in hopes of getting myself into the v day spirit. The majority of these poems fell flat and were quite unsexy.
December 7, 2008
So this book is filled with some extremely provocative and creative imagery. I've never read such eloquent and yet erotic passages.
I definitely recommend this book to anybody with an appreciation of written language. It shows just how many subtle variations there are to "I'm horny let's screw." ;) Seriously though, each poem is of course about more than that but they all have that common thread. I learned a lot from reading how the different authors dealt with the subject matter. Some in extremely blunt ways, while others handled it much more coyly.
I definitely recommend this book to anybody with an appreciation of written language. It shows just how many subtle variations there are to "I'm horny let's screw." ;) Seriously though, each poem is of course about more than that but they all have that common thread. I learned a lot from reading how the different authors dealt with the subject matter. Some in extremely blunt ways, while others handled it much more coyly.
May 3, 2015
I went through a period where I was really interested in romantic and erotic poetry. I liked the briefness of some of the pieces in this anthology, but on the whole it was the most intriguing poetry. I also have a had time connecting with poetry. I don't often understand it. So my not liking this anthology more is influenced by that.
August 29, 2011
While a few of these poems are a bit too raw for my taste, many are deeply touching reflections on the intimate connection between two people. It's a read that's good for the heart.
January 8, 2013
As with any collection, some were much better and others not so much. Overall, though, I found this to be very enjoyable. Definitely a good book to have around and sample from time to time.
November 13, 2016
An eclectic collection of evocative Poetry.
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August 28, 2015808.81935 I61948 2004
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews