ReadOut

by Michael Stuart

A PAIR OF POETS

National Poetry Month inspires an appreciation of two of our community’s talented writers

Thomas Blanton photograph by David Lewis

Most of us dreaded the idea of reading poetry in high school. Or to be more accurate, we dreaded the prospect of flunking an exam because we didn’t read the poetry we were supposed to in high school. It isn’t our fault. It can be challenging to relate to the ravings of an individual who willingly moves into a cabin on a remote lake in order to “live a deliberate life” (that means no electricity, no phones, and no bars/sex/clubs/friends: Hell). Although if poets like Billie Simon and Thomas Blanton had been included in school textbooks, we would have had something we liked to read.

Billie Simon, a.k.a. Billie X, is a petite, elusive African-American woman whose poetry grabs you by the gut with its raunchy, in-your-face style. In “USAY,” Billie says what every woman or man who has been lied to, cheated on, and used is dying to say: “u say/u want me … //i give u all of me,/and then some/yet everytyme i look up/you got yo ass/in some muthuf--kin’ club … cuz/u say u real/and i believed/u right from the start/but you can’t/play a player baby/well maybe/if that playa/had a heart/but see/i played that part/once before/and swore/i never darken that/door again/and that’s why i f--k u/but i make love 2 /yo best friend….” Unfortunately, her elusiveness makes her work hard to get hold of, but her chapbooks (poetspeak for small, generally self-produced books) include two volumes of Suite 69: Black Lesbian Erotica (Apple Tree Publishing) and weak lynks…new poems by billie simon.

Strip the veneer of propriety and lies from a gay man, one who has a sense of humor about himself, and you have Thomas Blanton. He has a talent for invoking the voice of a dispassionate but sympathetic spectator, as in “Gay Porn and Coffee”: “… At one/point in time, it might/have been a tearoom,/but now it’s just the back room/of a coffee shop;/streetside you’ll notice/club kids sipping lattes and/thinking pride is a /circuit party, but/face the alley and witness/the lonely old men/who can remember when/they were as wanted as/the box-cover boys.” The sense of nostalgia that Blanton brings to light in his work is poignant, painful, and cathartic. He gives his reader a way to cope with life, maybe not what you would find in trite over-the-counter-psychobabble books, but something more honest and real, like wearing his ex-lover’s clothing to immerse himself in his scent, in “I’m Wearing You”: “For now, I’ll fake content with wearing you.//It’s only for a few more hours, anyway,/until the caffeine/burns out of my system and then/I’ll finally get you off/of me, onto the floor,/with the rest of the dirty laundry. That way, only/one of us lies in the bed,/and I never broke any promises,/and you’re not the One//reason I can’t fall asleep.”

At the most basic level, Blanton’s work is honest and direct. Whether he is discussing a diva-wannabe or pedophilic priests, the falsehoods and pretenses are cut away, and the victim is often left open and bleeding. Blanton (who is also a regular OutSmart contributor) has produced Preachin’ and Bitchin and Letters from My Analyst. A preview is available on his website, www.roadsidezoo.com.

POETIC VOICES

To mark National Poetry Month, Thomas Blanton, who organizes the once-monthly poetry reading at the Houston GLBT Community Center, will host an evening of work by local writers on Friday, April 12. The 7 p.m. event will take place at the community center (3400 Montrose Blvd., Suite 207).

Poetry Night at the Center has moved to the second Friday of every month at the community center. Every month, Blanton will feature a changing group of writers.

Many GLBT poets, including Blanton, Howard Michael, and others, appear frequently at the Wednesday open-mike sessions at Helios on Westheimer.

MORE POETS

These are a few additional local gay-and-lesbian poets with chapbooks:

Mike Bolin

Running from the Light

Hampton Burt

Dreg

Donna Garrett

The Spoken Truth

Michael Locke

Sun Primed

The Water Will Rise

Howard Michael

View from the Closet Door

Wine from Sour Grapes

The Four Seasons

Some of these books are available at Lobo Bookshop & Cafe for purchase—a great way to support our local poets particularly during National Poetry Month.

Michael Stuart wrote about the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick Supreme Court decision for the March issue.

The write stuff: Like many local GLBT poets, the soft-spoken Hampton Burt reads his own work beautifully. He occasionally reads at the community center. Burt’s poem “Life” appears below. —Photograph by David Lewis

Life

Hampton Burt

From Dreg (2002)

I will cut my own piece of cake, thank you.

I can see that it’s big.

I know that most people let other people cut their cake for them.

I can see that it has a lot of icing on it.

I can see that it’s rich.

I can see where most people cut their pieces from.

But I will cut my own piece of cake, thank you,

From the part where nobody goes,

Because I have discovered that is where my happiness lies.

If you have any comments about this article, please email them to letters@outsmartmagazine.com.