The question of sexuality in literature — “it doesn not stand by itself”

“…it has become, in my opinion, imperative to achieve a shifted attitude… towards the thought and fact of sexuality, as an element in character, personality, the emotions, and a theme in literature. I’m not going to argue the question by itself; it does not stand by itself.”

– Walt Whitman, “A Backwards Glance o’er Traveled Roads”

“Our erotic knowledge empowers us…”

“Our erotic knowledge empowers us, becomes a lens through which we scrutinize all aspects of our existence, meaning within our lives. And this is a gave responsibility, projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the merely safe.”

the incomparable Audre Lorde

“this threadbare beauty / the ribs of the disaster / curving their assertion / among the tentative haunters.”

Is there much better than this?  Adrienne Rich, you do it so powerful, and make it look so easy.  I want to memorize this.

the thing I came for:
the wreck and not the story of the wreck
the thing itself and not the myth
the drowned face always staring
toward the sun
the evidence of damage
worn by salt and away into this threadbare beauty
the ribs of the disaster
curving their assertion
among the tentative haunters.

 

Harold Norse’s “To the Hustler”

A blogger posts a Harold Norse poem! Not many folks know about Norse, but he’s likely going to be one of the poets I study for my diss.  The blogger writes, “’To the Hustler,’” [Norse's poem] always keeps me on my toes because the poem is not strong enough to hold a powerful message, or hold onto emotion.  The poem searches for it — desperately searches — the search is heartbreaking.”  I’m not sure if the blogger thinks the poem is purposefully failing in its search, or not but in any case click on over to read the poem and judge for yourself.

“One element that has remained consistent is my identity as a politicized person.” — Rigoberto Gonzalez

If we identify as a person is important, is how we identify as a writer important? Less so? More so? Here’s an interview with essayist, memoirist, poet, and editor Rigoberto Gonzalez, who describes his background this way: ” I was born in California, raised in Michoacán, educated in Spanish, and then English when my family returned to the U.S. when I was ten. I come from three generations of migrant farm workers, grape pickers mostly, and until I left for college I spent summers working alongside my family harvesting grape, onion, and green beans. As you can appreciate, our working class perception of the arts was enriched with folk music, Catholicism, and storytelling. I grew up with a strong sense of myself as a Mexican, and later, in college, as a Chicano and a gay man. One element that has remained consistent is my identity as a politicized person.

A conversation between snow men and women at www.poetryfoundation.org

I’m so excited to be teaching a 10-week master’s poetry at Grub Street that starts today!  Before we workshop, we will be talking about this poem and this more recent poem, both of which deal in some way with winter.  Check ‘em out.  You may have read one of them before! I think you’ll find there’s an amazing conversation going on between them.  And for a prompt, if time, I’m asking students to write a poem that begins or ends in “winter” but begins or ends in someplace else entirely.

Franco’s Broken Tower trailer (Hart Crane)

Reading announcement: BLACKSMITH!

I’ve been holding on to this information for a while now, but no longer. I’m bursting!  I am privileged to be reading at historic Blacksmith House Poetry Series this spring! MARCH 19!  I’ll be reading with the wonderful Rebecca Morgan Frank. If you’re local, or even if you’re not ( ;-0) I hope you can make it!  I’ve been dreaming of this for a long time!  Of course, I’ll be reading work from…

Love-In-Idleness, by Christopher Hennessy

“Christopher Hennessy gets the rhythm right, the timbre right, and the heart-sense right. Every detail is in place, and the whole ensemble sings. There’s hard labor behind these poems—in Oscar Wilde’s sense, and in Emily Dickinson’s. (Did Emily talk about hard labor? Indirectly, yes.) Wise about words and about the world, Hennessy’s poems cut no corners, though they are full of the melancholy wisdom that hides in coverts, closets, hope-chests, crevices, and other concealed places. I praise Hennessy’s talent, his ardor-packed process, and the shapeliness of the results.”

—WAYNE KOESTENBAUM

Recovering

I’m finally in a place to start recovering and thinking through my qualifying exams (orals) that took place in Dec. (I passed!)  I wrote my ‘exams’ and then talked to my committee about the gay historical imagination and identity formation, the role of the public/private space in the process, and the nature of gay historicizing as a backwards glance.  The original readings I did were on O’Hara, James Schuyler and Harold Norse.

So I’ve been looking at some of the quotes/info. I ended up NOT using. Here’s a nice nugget.

“The homosexual had to discover that one’s native language was not one’s own. It could not be trusted as an instrument of desire or assertion or self-definition. What an interesting discovery. What terror and what richness. One had to understand instinctively the often treacherous meaning behind the culture’s simplest norms and pervasive rituals. One had to rely on interpretation and tone; for gay people, inflection was required. The translation of the felt language of love and custom was something homosexuals understood by doing without. The possibility that it was all lies, as it felt to him, enters early into the gay soul.”

Robert Dawidoff, “In My Father’s House there Are Man Closets,” Making History Matter (86)

Poetry on the Kindle

Did you know Love-In-Idleness is available on the Kindle? I got a Kindle for Christmas and am loving it, surprisingly so.  (Of course you can always get buy a copy here too.) Am I being too subtle?

What do you think about poetry on the Kindle/ebooks? Here’s what Billy Collins had to say a year ago. I think it’s changed for the better!  I’ve had a few folks tell me they’ve bought the book as a Kindle version and have enjoyed it!