Dear Knut,
I could post my sexist poem but that would not be very loyal. Why send it out like a lamb to the slaughter without a warm voice to protect it, or the creamy covers of a chapbook to give it refuge if need be.
I'm a believer in the Muse. Also variousness. So I take responsibility for what I write but have some tolerance for anomalies, in my own work and that of others.
The question of audience plays into it as well.
Cryptically yours,
Mairead
>>> [log in to unmask] 11/29/05 6:43 AM >>>
On Nov 26, 2005, at 21:55, Mairead Byrne wrote:
> Do we have critical standards for poems about flowers, sunrises, and
> rivers? Anyway,
> I'm much more interested in questions about sexist poems I have
> written myself.
> They're good poems, I think. They make people laugh. But dammit
> they're sexist. Should I be ashamed?
>
I'm curious about these, Mairead. I see poems which are overtly
offensive to the point of being on the verge of camp, and I see some
which are offensive-with-a-sense-of-humor, but sincerely
sexist/"incorrect" poetry surely is a rare thing in today's
publications.
These last lines graced a poem of John Stammers' in this summer's
Poetry Review:
The minx's eyes ignite,
"Oh Johnny", (Johnny!) she purrs,
"Could you bear to give me a lift up to Elstree?"
She shifts the weight of her sweet little backside;
her thighs kiss like delicate lesbians.
"Well, naturally, what I meant is
she gave me the /use/ of it, /sometimes/.
I spoke using what's called a /convention/,
as you'd've realised if you had half a brain
you talentless little bimbo."
Clearly in the camp category. It's marked "after Catullus," by the way,
so those more well-read in the classics may be able to point out an
original for this.
--Knut
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