The Word Cloud

........with an expression of yearning lips open a touch.

or

........a way off, full of yearning lips open a touch.

Katie neither of these sentences are better, sorry.

Yearning lips?

You do have to be careful when using a known phrase - what the poets call "received language", such as "open a touch", that the figurative image it carries in "touch" doesn't clash with the literal, physical facts of the moment: "full of... yearning lips" (how many lips are there?) - and "lips/touch". Also that parts of the body don't get separated from the real human being they belong to: it's not the lips that are yearning, it's the person...

Maybe if you posted the phrase in thier context of a sentence or two, Cloudies could help you with it.

If this is part of a larger problem - that you're struggling to express what you're imagining - you could get hold of THE best short book on the basics of good creative writing, which is John Moat & John Fortune's The Way to Write. (It has a foreword by Ted Hughes, so it sometimes turns up as being by him, which it isn't).

Sorry I find that I don't struggle with my story you're right Emma -that you're struggling to express what you're imagining. Basically he's yearning looking off into the distance and his mouth is open slightly as he is! I hope that makes sense too !! Do you know what I mean ?

........with an expression of yearning, his lips part.