Queer Poetics

b. Jan 20th, 1944

d. June 19th, `1989

"This loud and rich-mouthed poet," Lyndie Brimstone writes of Pat Parker in Feminist Review, "who planted her feet firmly on platforms all over America and demanded that her audiences, whoever they may be, pay attention, was not only working class, she was black and lesbian: the very first to refuse to compromise and speak openly from all her undiluted experience." Parker was a contemporary of such writers as Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and LeRoi Jones/Amira Baraka. Until her early death from cancer in 1989, she was not only a highly visible black Lesbian poet - Adrian Oktenberg, writing in the Women's Review of Books, called her "the poet laureate of the Black and Lesbian peoples" - but a committed activist in radical politics and community issues. In addition to urgent, angry poems against racism, sexism, and homophobia, Parker wrote "exquisitely sensual love poems," Brimstone reported.

“I have”

.

i have known

many women

and the you of you

puzzles me.

.

it is not beauty

i have known

beautiful women.

.

it is not brains

i have known

intelligent women.

.

it is not goodness

i have known

good women.

.

it is not selflessness

i have known

giving women.

.

yet you touch me

in new

different

ways.

.

i become sand

on a beach

washed anew with

each wave of you.

.

with each touch of you

i am fresh bread

warm and rising.

.

i become a newborn kitten

ready to be licked

and nuzzled into life.

.

you are my last love

and my first love

you make me a virgin

and I want to give myself to you.

.     .     .

Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson, educator, author and social activist, was born on July 19, 1875 in New Orleans, Louisiana 

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/dunbar-nelson-alice-ruth-moore-1875-1935

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/dunbar-nelson/about.htm

“When Alice was 20, she published "Violets and Other Tales: in 1895. She married Paul Laurence Dunbar after a  correspondence courtship.  It began after Dunbar saw her picture accompanying one of her poems published in 1897. They were married  in a secret ceremony on March 6, 1898, in New York.  At the time she was teaching at the White Rose Mission (it was later called, the White Rose Home for Girls in Harlem), which she helped to found. After the wedding, they moved to Washington, D.C..  Their marriage ended in 1902 and she moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where she taught at Howard High School  Alice never saw Paul again, but she continued to publish under the name of Alice Dunbar even after he died in 1906.  In the second of three marriages, she secretly married Henry Callis, in 1910, who was a fellow teacher, but they were divorced a year later.  She married Robert Nelson, a journalist in 1916.  Alice was bisexual and her husband threw tantrums over her lesbian affairs, but they remained married until her death.”

-------http://allpoetry.com/Alice-Dunbar-Nelson

Some Poems:

Sonnet

I had no thought of violets of late, The wild, shy kind that spring beneath your feet In wistful April days, when lovers mate And wander through the fields in raptures sweet. The thought of violets meant florists' shops, And bows and pins, and perfumed papers fine; And garish lights, and mincing little fops And cabarets and songs, and deadening wine. So far from sweet real things my thoughts had strayed, I had forgot wide fields, and clear brown streams; The perfect loveliness that God has made,-- Wild violets shy and Heaven-mounting dreams. And now--unwittingly, you've made me dream Of violets, and my soul's forgotten gleam.

I Sit and Sew

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

I sit and sew—a useless task it seems, My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams— The panoply of war, the martial tred of men, Grim-faced, stern-eyed, gazing beyond the ken Of lesser souls, whose eyes have not seen Death Nor learned to hold their lives but as a breath— But—I must sit and sew. I sit and sew—my heart aches with desire— That pageant terrible, that fiercely pouring fire On wasted fields, and writhing grotesque things Once men. My soul in pity flings Appealing cries, yearning only to go There in that holocaust of hell, those fields of woe— But—I must sit and sew. The little useless seam, the idle patch; Why dream I here beneath my homely thatch, When there they lie in sodden mud and rain, Pitifully calling me, the quick ones and the slain? You need, me, Christ! It is no roseate seam That beckons me—this pretty futile seam, It stifles me—God, must I sit and sew?

You! Inez!

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Christopher Soto (aka Loma) is a queer latin@ punk poet and prison abolitionist.  They are currently curating Nepantla: A Journal Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color in collaboration with The Lambda Literary Foundation. They have work published in Columbia: A Journal, MiPOesias, Apogee Journal and more. They are an MFA candidate in Poetry at NYU and the 2014-2015 Intern at Poetry Society of America.

Poem by Christopher Soto

content note (CN): mourning loss of a friend

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crush a pearl (its powder)

the night rory died, he moved the chair, his blonde locks fell

& we will never be the same

i moved to the beach, thrusted my hands into the mud

broke the jaw of every clam, hoping to find him

his pearly smile, like a broken necklace, thudded to the ground

scattered across mahogany floor

he kissed open the stitches of my gums & draped my teeth

on a necklace over the shy of his breasts

new lovers plagiarize, say awkward things, and yearn

they ask to see my pretty smile

but who smiles when the sky swallows its stars

QUEER CONTEMPORARY POETS OF COLOR:

http://www.lambdaliterary.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/nepantla.ajournal.pdf

Note on the direction of this site:

I have been letting this blog rest, after a single post- unsure of whose work to feature next… Initially I was thinking of adding queer poets chronologically prioritizing poets who had less access to privileges during their life time and eventually working my way to contemporary poets. The interweb search for “queer poc poets in history” then “queer black poets in history” “queer brown poets in history” and came up disappointingly sparse, vague, cluttered with irrelevant answers. A quick inter web search for queer black, brown, other non-white poets in history makes the erasure of non-white histories under a white supremacist society abundantly obvious. So- I will continue my search and feature black and other non-white queer poets from history; but, I wanted to feature this super rad journal as soon as possible, as well as a poem by its gender queer, ‘latinpunk’ editor, Loma.

FRAGMENT 31

He seems to me an equal of the gods—

whoever gets to sit across from you

and listen to the sound of your sweet speech

so close to him,

to your beguiling laughter: O it makes my

panicked heart go fluttering in my chest,

for the moment I catch sight of you there’s no

speech left in me,

but tongue gags—: all at once a faint

fever courses down beneath the skin,

eyes no longer capable of sight, a thrum-

ming in the ears,

and sweat drips down my body, and the shakes

lay siege to me all over, and I’m greener

than grass, I’m just a little short of dying,

I seem to me;

but all must be endured; 

(?) OTHER FRAGMENTS

You came, I yearned for you,

and you cooled my senses that burned with desire

or

love shook my senses

like wind crashing on mountain oaks

or

Maidenhood, my maidenhood, where have you gone

leaving me behind?

Never again will I come to you, never again

Find Sappho. 

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/16/girl-interrupted

http://www.poemhunter.com/sappho/poems/

SAPPHO OF THE ISLE OF LESBOS (an artist’s rendering, important to note that Sappho is actually often described as appearing “small and dark”; which, to this mod; does not seem apparent, explored, or emphasized); The Isle of Lesbos is where the word “lesbian” is derived. One of the first “lesbian poets”. 

Out of her apparently numerous works, only a little over 200 fragments and one (presumably) completed poem remain. 

On the death of Sappho, possibly at her own hands... 

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There is a story that Sappho, aching in the throes of unrequited love from a Lesbian woman named Anactoria, threw herself to her death over the Leucadian hills. There is another story that Sappho threw herself over the hills for a ferryman named Phaon; though this is regarded as unhistorical by many historians, representing the influence of heterosexual dominance and its power in erasing queer history. 

ODE TO ANACTORIA by Sappho

I asked a FB group of Portland, OR -based queers if they could define “queer poetry”, and; is it okay for straight people to refer to their poetry as “queer”? (see previous post for the exact framing of the questions).

NOTE: The people I heard from on this subject are by no means necessarily representing “The (nebulous/elusive/illusory) Larger Queer Community”. Portland is a notoriously white city and the voices of people of color are not often enough centered. I say this with the acknowledgement that this disparity does not negatively affect me as it would poc; as I am white in a predominantly white city ( “predominantly white”- speaks to the amount of white people in comparison to poc; but, especially, speaks to a pervasive mindset). Some of the people I have quoted in this post are not white. I am keeping the identities of everyone in this post entirely anonymous; but, please note that there are many missing voices and perspectives and that I myself am white, raised in a predominantly white city most of my life; and only partially aware of how whiteness informs every aspect of my perspective. 

Hey Portland Queers! What is queer poetry? Can straight people write it?

I found the first response to be vague, or, maybe mysterious, but lovely.

“[Queer poetry is] language inspired by divine androgyny”.

The next person commented:

I would say that to be queer gives you a much different lens with which to view life, and any poet of course would write from that perspective.

If a str8 ally can "queer" poetry? I would think so. Those who find solace and kinship among a population to which they aren't inherently a part of connect on some level, and maybe need that community/exposure/experience to come out/unblock inhibitions or be a better ally

So with this subversive idea, i think the blog would serve to be a safe space for queer self expression... or is it that the subject of said poems would exclusively be about being queer? Then no, probably not for folks who didn't realize they were queer and live that truth.

A few more perspectives on straight people writing “queer” poetry.

Personally, I don't think straight people can write queer poetry, though they may choose to write poetry with queer themes.-anon

I would really not be happy with a straight person using the word queer for their own works. -anon

Straight identified/priviledged people calling their poetry queer would feel pretty problematic and insulting to me-anon

The following definitions are only semi-formed, &inspired by the ideas of the queers I heard on the subject:

QueerPoetic IMPOSSAGLOSSARY: a rough cut

queer poetry: Poetry that continues to smash the many toxic paradigms and structures that have been handed to us by dominant culture

queer poetry: Any poetry written by queers that they believe fits within that category----often with the intention to understand and relate about aspects of queer experience; often specifically around sexuality, gender, systemic oppression; though not necessarily. Many queer people find the concept of straight people referring to their work as “queer” to be problematic...a form of appropriation even,,,a misuse of privilege- stepping into a space that is not theirs though most of the world shouts straight narratives and silences queer ones.

queering poetry: Infusing one’s poetry with content that is specifically “queer” in that it deals with the experiences around one’s queer sexual and/or gender identity. The process of creating poetry  that is deviant, often subversive to “normal”//”primary” patterns of syntax, content, etc.

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IMPOSSIGLOSSARY: an epilogue titled, 

“ILLUMINATION POST RUMINATION!: intentions clarified”

Dear Readers of QueerPoetic (i.e. future self),

Though I am open to many definitions of “queer” and “queer poetry”; for this blog I shall solely feature the poetry of queer people. I am excited for what might emerge from this project! Dear friends, queer friends- sendeth me your poetry! Meow meow *consensual lick, pounce!* Meow!

Luv,

I am sitting with the power I feel in the name of this blog, “queerpoetic”; and have been thinking it could be more than a personal blog of my own ramblings, but, rather; a compendium-- starting at first with mostly reblogged queer poets and some of my own stuff thrown in; then, ***hopefully***    ****eventually***   ***soon*** posting poems by poets that have not yet been published ANYwhere else, or at least anywhere else online. Perhaps, also; I could include videos of queers reading poems by themselves or their favorite queer writers, as an attempt to get MORE poems online, and more queerdos witnessed! 

A couple of days ago, I posted to a PDX queer FB group the following question: 

Hey Queerdos of Portland! I'm starting a queer poetry blog and wanting to learn what "queer poetry" means to any who wish to share. Can straight people "queer" poetry? Is any poem written by a queer a queer poem? I think "poetry" and "queer" are both inherently evasive and subversive to definition, which is what makes the attempt so exciting, so difficult! 

CONTENT: reference to tragedy at a community college