GaySpeak Short Poetry Club

[OrphanPip]

Hey guys, I know we have a few readers on the forum, and I was wondering if there would be interest in an informal short poetry reading group. I participate semi-regularly with an online-reading group elsewhere, and I know they can be a hassle to organize around everyone's schedules. For that reason, I think it might be nice to stick to short poems that people can read and respond to without a huge commitment of time (unless they want to give a lot of time to it).

I'd be happy to organize it, and figured, because of the nature of the forum, it would be ideal to make the focus on LGBT poets or themes. I figured I'd post a poem every 1-3 weeks. And I would be happy to take suggestions by PM, and I don't expect there to be so much interest that any suggestion would not get a chance to be posted.

Poets I have in mind for the moment off the top of my head to present are:

Walt Whitman
W.H. Auden
Oscar Wilde
Elizabeth Bishop
Allen Ginsberg
Wilfred Owen
Siegfried Sassoon
Joan Larkin
Langston Hughes

And I'd be thrilled to get some suggestions of more women poets and of some transgender poets. But that short list alone can provide enough worthwhile poems for way longer than this thread will likely survive.

So, anyone interested?

[Inchante]

Muriel Rukeyser
Olga Broumas
Audre Lorde
Chrystos
Marilyn Hacker
Minnie Bruce Pratt


More Gay Men:
Constantine P. Cavafy
Carl Phillips
Frank O'hara
Hart Crane
John Ashbery
Sandro Penna
Frederico Garcia Lorca
Jean Genet
Robert Duncan


I used to have an anthology with trans poets in it, but I cannot find it. Part of my library is in storage, however. It may be there. Some earlier works may be interesting too. Dare I mention The Bard's Sonnet 20?

[OrphanPip]

I used to have an anthology with trans poets in it, but I cannot find it. Part of my library is in storage, however. It may be there. Some earlier works may be interesting too. Dare I mention The Bard's Sonnet 20?

Ya I was mulling over whether Sonnet 20 would be a good poem to kick things off with, just because of the status of the poem and of the author. Most of my reading is in the long 18th century, but the only poet with queer themes from that period I can think of is Rochester.

There's also Marlowe, but other than rather dry excerpts from his plays there's not much there of interest for a reading group.

[Inchante]

Oh, reading through "The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature" I see more . . . Spenser, Barnfield, Drayton. Michelangelo would be an interesting starter.

[OrphanPip]

I know there are some homosexual overtones with two shepherds in the Sheppard's Calendar (although I've always taken that to be a bit of tongue in cheek joke about Latin pastorals given Spenser's notes to the text which assure the reader there is nothing homosexual going on) but I think the poems are a little long.

Though these are Renaissance poets and outside my normal range of reading. I only know the big names of the Renaissance with any familiarity, but I'll read anything.

[Inchante]

I say open the group, create a thread, and start posting poems. People can join as they read.

[Nick9]

Hi guys, I am afraid I won't have much to contribute, but I'll love to read what you post

[MindsMight]

I'm not too savy with literature, and I don't have much to offer, but I want to be exposed to more poetry! I'd love to join this group!

[OrphanPip]

I'll get around to making this when I get home later today.

[Bookworm]

I could do with broadening my Poetry horizons. I tend to be drawn towards darker, abstract confessional poetry, which reflects my own amateurish attempts ; hence, you will find Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton on my bookshelf; but I really should read more Poetry.
I am a bookworm but I confess, I do read a lot of rubbish sometimes :redface: