Do you have a favourite gay or lesbian poem? Magma asked some poets and other people who might have an opinion. Here are some of the responses.
Moniza Alvi
Poet.
Christina Dunhill The Shape of Her (in Anvil New Poets 2, ed. Duffy)
“It’s so original—fun and erotic, wild and slightly shy.”
Julie Burchill
Journalist.
On The Good Ship Venus traditional sporting song, recorded by The Sex Pistols.
“The bit about the cabin boy circumcizing the skipper gets me every time.”
Rhona Cameron
TV presenter and comedian
“I don’t have a favourite gay or lesbian poem I’m afraid. I’m a big fan of e.e. cummings and Charles Bukowski.”
Mark Doty
Poet
Frank O’Hara A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island
“It’s a radiant act of self-blessing (something every artist must do sometimes, when no-one else will bless you). And it’s funny, good-natured, and startlingly strange. Its ‘gayness’ isn’t obvious, but it’s in the tone, the voice, the stance toward the world.”
Germaine Greer
Author and broadcaster
“Poems are neither gay nor lesbian.”
Peter Hewitt
Chief Executive, Arts Council England
Elizabeth Bishop The Shampoo
“A tender love statement, marrying the ‘pragmatical’ with heavenly comfort and care—read aloud it’s a gorgeous poem.”
Jim MacSweeney
Manager, Gay’s The Word Bookshop
C.P. Cavafy trans Edmund Keeley He Asked About the Quality
“I like Cavafy’s poetry generally. I particularly like this one for the vivid way it evokes a casual encounter and for the intense yet restrained passion.”
Jules Mann
Director, The Poetry Society
Kay Ryan The Second (from Elephant Rocks, Grove Press, USA)
“Kay Ryan is a brilliant poet and this is an excellent example of her complexity and intelligence. A rare example, too, that hints at a lesbian perspective. Shame she’s not published in the UK (yet?)·”
Ian McKellen
Actor
Shakespeare’s sonnet A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
“I am still puzzling about the multiple meanings of this gem but surely the voice speaking is one acquainted with what we would now call a ‘gay’ perspective.”
Michael Schmidt
Editor, Carcanet Press
Lesbian: Elizabeth Bishop The Shampoo
Gay: Paul Wilkins The Drum-Bridge at Kameido
Simon Smith
Chief Librarian, The Poetry Library
Catullus Poem 16
“The poem brilliantly enacts through its chiastic structure the interface between orifices. And I translated it! It appears in PNR 148 November-December 2002. However, I don’t think Catullus would have understood what we mean by ‘gay and lesbian’—’homosexual’ being a 19th century construct.”
Ben Summerskill
Chief Executive, Stonewall (campaign for gay and lesbian equality)
Carol Ann Duffy Valentine
“It’s a beautiful assessment of the very two-sided nature of love.”
Peter Tatchell
Human rights campaigner
Nonnus, c. 480 AD The Calmus Legend, part XI-348 of the epic poem Dionysiaca.
Gregory Woods
Poet and professor of gay and lesbian studies
Walt Whitman When I Heard at the Close of the Day
“Although Whitman is not my favourite poet, and this is not his best poem, it has been sentimentally important to me for thirty years. The absence of the loved one, the anticipation of his arrival, and then the joy of just being with him—what else needs saying? This poem also keeps reminding me, as a gay academic, that being professionally queer is not the point.”
Benjamin Zephaniah
Poet
Wu Tsao For the Courtesan Ching Lin
“The Chinese love jade but normally it’s heavenly rather than sexual or erotic. I love the way Wu Tsao subverts jade and sees it present in the body of the woman she wants. I don’t like analysing poetry, I’m more concerned about how it makes me feel, and this poem makes me feel like I want to be a lesbian when I grow up.”
