Using Varsha Panikar’s poetry series by the same name, as the point of departure, Bodies of Desire is a visual poetry film co-directed by her and Saad Nawab. The film captures four sets of lovers amid passion; to create a portrait of tender intimacy, of longing, of discovery, of desire, of embrace and care, of profound companionship. It is a sensual celebration of gender-less love and desire, inspired by the poet’s lived reality. The text follows the poet’s journey of healing and self-acceptance as they rediscover love, passion, and identity after encountering their muse, their lover, who acts as an encounter, a rupture that awakens the poet and their desire to express their inner truth. Immersed in the lover’s thought, the poet recalls moments spent in the embrace, the touch, the smell, the little things that evoke feelings and emotions in them, that are complex, multidimensional, and fluid; and inevitably put them on a path of discovering their own power and uniqueness.