1. seeking of pleasure: a devotion, especially a self-indulgent one, to pleasure and happiness as a way of life
2. a philosophical doctrine that holds that pleasure is the highest good or the source of moral values



When exactly did we suddenly get so inhibited?
- so frustratingly, arse-clenchingly repressed?

When did we start avoiding Aristippus?
To sip sherry with the socially self-conscious?

What happened to the Greek, the Roman way?
Was it really the Victorians that made us pay
for this departure from decadence?
In preference to the adherence
of lifelessness, blisslessness?

What happened to the banquets
the languid lounging, riotous carousing
reaching for bones, sinking the teeth,
ripping the meat?

What happened to worship,
adulation at the shrine,
kissing the feet of Bacchus
feeling the ruby juices
running down the chin, the neck?

What happened to Theodora?
her slaves, her lovers,
her abandoned blushless
wilful wantonness,
her deliberate, compelling campaign
to corrupt the corruptible?

Theodora, The Inimitable,
forever undefeated
upon the field of pleasure.