Mystery

You the dragon that bears claws and

Fangs and buckled wings made of leather

That has never seen the light

You the tiger that leaps

From black-burned branches

Onto its unsuspecting prey

Always in the shadows more black

Than grey

You the falcon that circles high

And free above the mountainside

The sea the fields the land

Forever roaming limitless and

Always eager to escape

You so many things yet none

Turned fully into whole

You a pulsing living mystery

Forever alone

Never in need for company

Except your own.

Online Personal

In your self portrait

Shot back from the mirror,

The reflected flash obscures your face,

But highlights the sleek and warm contours

Of your torso’s veneer.

Like fulgent sunlight on a slickrock tower

It blinds and attracts my gaze,

Exposes the essence of transient desire,

And penetrates not just eternity

But also my better judgment.

M4M

pic, stat
fem, fat
ass, cock
bottom, top
short, tall
toilet stall
dom, sub
dem, repub
old, young
horny, hung
married, not
humble, hot
out, discreet
hotel meat
anal, oral
slut, moral
masc, fit
full of shit
str8, curious
gay, bi, furious
rant and rave
bear, shaved
down low
no show
safe, kink
daddy, twink
scripted roles
glory holes
ltr
pick-up bar
queen, ghost
hook-up, host
buddy, cub
body rub
ddf
vgl
ub2
should i tell
her the truth
faded youth
smooth, dark
in the park
seeking same
e-mail game

amidst all this
electric skin
no outlets wired
to plug me in

R.I.P. Gay Poetry... by Boyshadow

Foe or friend
it may all depend

but joined at the hip for the love of the pen
and men
…so we meet again

Let’s rewind time for those whose time at GayPoetry
may have been shorter than mine
It was a website for quite some time
Guys went there to free their mind
relax, spend time
and write something divine
but suddenly… it vanished in 2009.

It was a place to compare poetry from the comfort of home
in your underwear
yet we all had fun there
so compare it
to nowhere

But faster than he could ever walk out
it was lights out
The tiny sanctuary in the back of our minds
was wiped out
We tried to log in for about a week
to see if, maybe it was time out
But we slowly realized that Hope
is Optimistic Doubt
And if you didn’t have your poetry saved…
then you got assed-out

No warning… no nothing
it didn’t matter if you were in the middle of posting something
It didn’t matter if you had
one poem… or a hundred and something
Whether you suck… or you’re on to something

We were stuck with a pen in one hand
but nothing in the other
until we got a second wind
from our Brotha...
a fellow poetry lover

So I think it’s best if we all play our position
and maintain
the same tradition
Maintaining the peace here
is part of our religion
GP is gone
so now we use this one

I Pray, Too

Thanks to BrothaSoul for the invitation to this fresh space. On the way to the forefront...

In the spirit of introduction to The Gay Poetry Spot:


I Pray, Too

Like Ms. Angelou before me,
I pray these wings are gonna fit me,
that God won't punish me for trying to fly,
won't make me another Icarus, only to die
so close to reaching the sun,
'cause I gotta get off the ground if I don't wanna die,
gotta put on these new wings and learn how to fly,
or else I'll perish
from lack of wonderment,
lack of air.
I know you don't care,
'cause to you, I'm just another Mexican
screwing up in this world.
God forbid I be this brave,
or this bold.
You want me to stay on the ground,
away from all that's profound,
but I got plans to take me around
this world.

God, I pray these wings are gonna fit me
'cause I've never tried them on before,
never tried to get up off the floor,
but here I am, shooting for heights, unlike before,
when I just tried to
survive...

I want to be alive,
to know the sun of my own smile,
let it shine on me for a while--
let these new feather feels the air because,
listen, y'all:
I've got so much to share, you wouldn't believe.
Like Alicia Keys sings,
only joy comes from sorrow,
so tomorrow,
I plan to cash in on all I've been through;
I plan to hold on and cling to
my faith, which has brought me to this point,
where I pray to God,
"Please let these wings fit me.
Let me be happy so close to the sun
before you sing down your axe,
before you melt all the wax
from these delicate feathers."
Listen to my pleas as I'm down on my knees,
"God,
let
these
wings
fit
me,
or else you've doomed me

to an unfulfilled life,
full of nothing but strife,
with no hope of redemption."

I've paid my dues
feather by feather.
I've charged all I can to this account.
Don't make me sit and count on my fingers
every time they've lied,
every time I've cried,
every single sigh
that's passed through these lips,
every pair of hands that have grasped these hips
only to tear up these wings
so that I can only sing the blues.

And I love some Billie Holiday,
but I want my own day
to fly away from pain,
from all that has drained me.
Like Icarus before me,
I dare not to be scared of consequence,
to give way to wonderment
of all that's before me.

I just pray these wings are gonna fit me.

introduction to the spot

A couple of years ago I was introduced to the website Gay Poetry Online by a regular poster who was unaware that I shared her queer poetic inclinations. She spoke of the site in a moment of openness, offering that the site gave her an outlet for expressing her feelings creatively, in a forum that was, as far as she could tell, unprecedented on the internet. Her words spoke to me. I had recently discovered blogging, and in my journey discover my voice, I noticed that it most often manifested in verse. That reality seemed to place me among an additional minority in the blogosphere, so I was encouraged by the prospect of discovering voices I could brand my partners in rhyme.

For the past two years, Gay Poetry Online has allowed me the opportunity to explore and interact with a number of like minded poets, with fresh, personal takes on life. That is one of the primary reasons the website was ranked among my personal favorites.

A couple of hours ago I received an email from the poet I have claimed as my GPO favorite, hinting that the website outage I'd noticed a couple of days ago, seems to be permanent. It didn't take me long to decide that this was unacceptable.

So I have created this space for members of the seemingly offline treasure, to unveil their creative gems.

I chose Blogger as the platform, because I housed a personal blog here, and the fact that the address gaypoetry.blogspot.com was not claimed seemed an indication that this was a good decision. In order to allow posters as much creative license as possible, I believe that the best idea will be to add interested former members, as authors of this blog. The Blogger platform allows for up to 100 authors, who, if I understand the blog contribution process correctly, would be able to add and edit their works independently once approved as an author by me, who Blogger has titled mastibadministrator. I believe that said title comes with some moderation capabilities. Now, I am neither a fan of censorship, nor disrespect, so all I care to say about that at this point is that I am starting with a spirit of trust and a hope that the need for moderation will be minimal.

As far as the template of this infant blog is concerned, it may change as warranted. Currently, the previous post feature highlights the 10 newest posts, and the archive features monthly publications. In order to prevent the loss of work that sometimes happens when websites shut down unexpectedly, it might be a good idea to save a back up copy of your submissions. Some people may have lost their published work via GPO, and I would like to prevent that from happening with submissions to The Spot (which it seems I just decided will be the abbreviated name for this site). I will also share from personal experience that Blogger tends to like it best if you cut and paste your work from Microsoft Word. And as for the font, sometimes it's a roll of the dice as to whether or not it takes. Also, if you maintained a username at GPO, you might consider entering it as a label in your new posts, so that faithful readers can find your work easily.

So this is a call to former Gay Poetry Online members. If you would like to utilize this space to post your poetic proclamations, send an email to br.thas0ul@gmail.com hit me up on twitter expressing interest, so that I can take steps to add you as an author to the blog. If you were not a member of Gay Poetry Online, but would like to participate, please let me know as well.

A large part of me holds hope that Gay Poetry Online will be revived, because
this techinical junk is some bull$@!# it has been the home to the artistic soul of a number of quality queer poets. However whether or not the space reappears, this space will be here, to encourage silenced poetic voices to ring out loud and clear.
Signed,
brothasoul