The Art of Kissing

Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score;
Then to that twenty, add a hundred more;
A thousand to that hundred; so kiss on,
To make that thousand up a million;
Treble that million, and when that is done,
Let’s kiss afresh, as when we first begun.
~Robert Herrick, “To Anthea (III)” 

Most of us take kissing for granted. I think most of us think we need to be hard-wired to be a good kisser. After all, two heads are always better than one when it comes to kissing. Those few of us who know they are good kissers are all puffed up in arrogance and self-indulgence. Sometimes lovers forget kissing takes two pair of consenting lips. Of course, there is also the French habit of kissing the hands of your beloved first; after all, we’ve got to start somewhere. Some think we have to practice to be perfect which might be true. I’ve found in my many years of kissing that no amount of practice can help a bad kisser. I think it is important we take our lips out of the equation and make sure we give pleasure to our lovers. Perhaps talking about what we like first would enhance what we do later, as well as making sure we don’t have bad breath or exhibit bad manners beforehand. When we’re young, we might start out on fresh fruit like a peach, progressing to warm blood filled limbs of our best friends forearms, laughing all the time. I can remember my first kiss. Anyone’s face zooming within six inches of mine brought on screams of laughter at seventeen. Once I understood kissing was not supposed to be funny but pleasurable, I began enjoying it more and more. We all agree touch is the mother of the senses and kissing is a specialized form of intimate contact for all of us.

Kisses performed in an affectionate manner add to our soul’s estate. They add to our self-esteem and our own vision of ourselves as being lovable and willing to cultivate lovers. A kiss is always a credit because it is always profitable when returned. For most of us locking our minds together in a passionate kiss turns our hormones into a perspiring frenzy. A kiss can be romantic and terrifying at the same time depending on our maturity level. For many of us we imagine our first kiss as our first close encounter with the opposite gender. “Were kisses all the joys in bed, One woman would another wed.” says William Shakespeare.  Does kissing bestow the gift of eternal youth no matter which gender? Most agree kissing keeps our motors running on high octane. As I’m in the winter of my years, I haven’t been partaking lately in the gifts and guilt of  long passionate kisses, which doesn’t mean we elders don’t still like to be kissed. In the case of a child kissing his best friend, it comes natural. Teenagers on the other hand find kissing a means to an end and find it uncomfortable in the beginning. In the case of grandma kissing grandpa, most wimpy and quickly delivered pecks-on-the-cheek can still deliver a message of loyal affection, gratitude, compassion, sympathy, intense joy and at times even profound sorrow. Just thinking about a long passionate swapping of saliva brings can bring on warm feelings of highly pleasurable and profound gratitude.