return to their gentle senses in bed.
Suddenly straightforward, they perform
with routine confidence, neither afraid
that their partner will turn and bite their balls off
nor groping under the pillow for a razor blade;
eccentric only in their conversation,
which rambles on about the meaning of a word
they used in an argument in 1969,
they leave their women grateful, relieved, and bored.
Can Clio Do More than Amuse?
(after Verlaine)
Eva Salzman
My lovers are not literary types.
They are labourers on building sites.
They build houses and dig drains.
They do not sip champagne.
I want their strong arms to pin me to the bed.
I want them to enjoy me without romance,
simply, the way they take their beer and bread.
I want to make them hard and make them dance.
They do not own a tie or fancy shirts,
or a single suit. Their bodies have an earthy scent
or reek of cheap cologne like Brut.
Their hands are rough and thick, and elegant.
They’re not so hot at grammar, except in bed
where suddenly every word they say is correctly said.
They may not wash sometimes, but breathe me in
as if my skin were made of oxygen.
They trail a tang of sweat and stale tobacco everywhere.
Unfinished at the edges, they don’t wear underwear.
All they do is belch and fuck and hawk and fart.
They can’t tell the difference between their prick and their heart.
The Final Coming
Irving Layton
Her lips were round and full
And to his lap she bent;
He saw no car ahead
And when he came he went.
8
‘GOD, TO BE WANTED ONCE MORE’
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
Robert Herrick
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
One Flesh
Elizabeth Jennings
Lying apart now, each in a separate bed,
He with a book, keeping the light on late,
She like a girl dreaming of childhood,
All men elsewhere – it is as if they wait
Some new event: the book he holds unread,
Her eyes fixed on the shadows overhead.
Tossed up like flotsam from a former passion,
How cool they lie. They hardly ever touch,
Or if they do, it is like a confession
Of having little feeling – or too much.
Chastity faces them, a destination
For which their whole lives were a preparation.
Strangely apart, yet strangely close together,
Silence between them like a thread to hold
And not wind in. And time itself’s a feather
Touching them gently. Do they know they’re old,
These two who are my father and my mother
Whose fire from which I came, has now grown cold?
To Her Ancient Lover
John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
Ancient person, for whom I,
All the flattering youth defy;
Long be it e’er thou grow old,
Aching, shaking, crazy cold.
But still continue as thou art,
Ancient person of my heart.
On thy withered lips and dry,
Which like barren furrows lye;
Brooding kisses I will pour,
Shall thy youthful heat restore.
Such kind showers in autumn fall,
And a second spring recall:
Nor from thee will ever part,
Ancient person of my heart.
Thy nobler part, which but to name
In our sex would be counted shame,
By age’s frozen grasp possessed,
From his ice shall be released,
And soothed by my reviving hand,
In former warmth and vigour stand.
All a lover’s wish can reach,
For thy joy my love shall teach;
And for thy pleasure shall improve,
All that art can add to love.
Yet still I love thee without art,
Ancient person of my heart.
Address
C. H. Sisson
You whom I never loved,
You I have never touched
Live in my mind as if you proved
A thesis about other such,
Which is, that firm and tender flesh
Is medicine for an ageing man,
As if one body could refresh
Another as it never can.
The crook of age, the spring of youth,
Are equally the work of time;
What is in common is the truth
That age is age and prime is prime
And that both quickly slip away
To other hours, or none at all:
Whatever words the ghosts may say
It is the bodies take the fall.
Pretence may entertain the old,
The young may answer with a lie
But neither old nor young can hold
The same illusion till they die.
I look on you, you look on me;
For both, to speak no word is best.
I contemplate your lovely youth;
You cannot bear to think the rest.
‘What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why’
Edna St Vincent Millay
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
On the French Riviera
Ian Pindar
Youth and beauty have left me
a full packet of cigarettes
and this balcony. Time redecorates
my home as a reliquary.
The camera loved me once,
as everyone loves a young woman
of spirit who toys with men
and uses her natural elegance
to get what she wants. Siren
or ingénue, whatever they asked of me
I exuded ‘a carefree, naive sexuality’,
the critics said. Dominique, is that Dorian
at the door? My official biographer
promised to swing by after church
with more questions. He isn’t much
to look at, but he’s my last admirer.
Mick Jagger’s Penis Turns 69
Amorak
Huey
Mick Jagger’s penis is pleased to meet you.
Mick Jagger’s penis is the John Lennon’s penis
of penises. Also, the Steven Tyler scarf collection
of penises, the David Lee Roth midair crotch thrust,
the Gene Simmons codpiece, the Axl Rose attitude of penises.
This is a lot of pressure for a penis,
big shoes for a penis to fill. Mick Jagger’s penis
doesn’t ask for much, these days. Mick Jagger’s penis
is strongly influenced by the blues and knows
whom this song is about. There are two versions
of Mick Jagger’s penis: the one the world sees
and the one that lies awake at night
and worries it has let someone down.
Sometimes it wants to be remembered,
to leave its mark on the world, it wants
to be more than footnote, punchline, punching bag.
Sometimes it just wants to be held.
It grows weary of everything having two meanings.
If you ask Mick Jagger’s penis about its dreams,
it will tell you about a certain lightning storm
over a certain lake – which means
nothing more or nothing less than what it was:
the dark water, the sky splitting open.
If You are Lucky
Michelle McGrane
If you are lucky
you will carry one night with you
for the rest of your life,
a night like no other.
You won’t see it coming.
Forget the day, the year.
It will arrive uninvoked,
an astrological anomaly.
You will remember
how every cell in your body
knew him, this stranger,
how you held your breath,
the way you searched his face.
This is how such evenings begin.
And you will be real in your skin,
bone and sinew; the way you always thought
you could be. Effortlessly.
This is how you will fit together.
His parted lips between your thighs,
your half-lit nipples darkening,
the hot-breathed arrival of desire,
the frenzied coupling
as you opened soundlessly
and the world flooded into you.
In the morning, maybe,
soon after sunrise
you will walk barefoot above a waterfall in the forest,
light-headed with the smell of sex,
laughing in your déshabillé.
You will carry
the music of this memory with you;
and from time to time,
in the small, withered hours,
your body will sing its remembering.
‘You come to me quiet as rain not yet fallen’
Brian Patten
You come to me quiet as rain not yet fallen
Afraid of how you might fail yourself your
dress seven summers old is kept open
in memory of sex, smells warm, of boys,
and of the once long grass.
But we are colder now; we have not
Love’s first magic here. You come to me
Quiet as bulbs not yet broken
Out into sunlight.
The fear I see in your now lining face
Changes to puzzlement when my hands reach
For you as branches reach. Your dress
Does not fall easily, nor does your body
Sing of its own accord. What love added to
A common shape no longer seems a miracle.
You come to me with your age wrapped in excuses
And afraid of its silence.
Into the paradise our younger lives made of this bed and room
Has leaked the world and all its questioning
and now those shapes terrify us most
that remind us of our own. Easier now
to check longings and sentiment,
to pretend not to care overmuch,
you look out across the years, and you come to me
quiet as the last of our senses closing.
Arrival
William Carlos Williams
And yet one arrives somehow,
finds himself loosening the hooks of
her dress
in a strange bedroom –
feels the autumn
dropping its silk and linen leaves
about her ankles.
The tawdry veined body emerges
twisted upon itself
like a winter wind … !
Whatever Happened to Sex?
Amorak Huey
Maybe back in the ’60s,
when sex was more popular …
– Freshman essay
Sex lives in a bungalow in the Hollywood Hills,
comes out only for special occasions –
anniversaries, holidays, the Oscars sometimes.
Old pals like Drugs and Rock ’n’ Roll stop by,
checking up, always too quick with a compliment
on how well she’s holding up, you know, considering.
Sex tries hard not to whine for the good old days
or blame her agent – She says I should be doing
TV! Can you imagine? – but in the evenings
after her friends have gone and the lemon sun
slumps behind the orange trees
she can’t help but ache to be popular again,
to feel the heat rising from flash bulbs –
that electric thrill of being wanted –
god, to be wanted once more before dark.
Acknowledgements
Adcock, Fleur: ‘Madmen’ from Poems 1960–2000, Bloodaxe, 2000, reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books; Agbabi, Patience: ‘The Sting’ from Transformatrix, Canongate, 2000, reprinted by permission of Canongate; Ammons, A. R.: ‘Their Sex Life’, from The Really Short Poems of A. R. Ammons by A. R. Ammons. Copyright © 1990 by A. R. Ammons. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.; Armitage, Simon: ‘To His Lost Lover’ from Book of Matches, Faber, 1993, reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber; Aubury, Nic: ‘Casanever’ and ‘The Couple Upstairs’ from Cold Soup, Nasty Little Press, 2013, reprinted by permission of the poet; Barber, Ros: ‘Ur Thurs Reidh Ansur’, first published in Stand, 2000, reprinted by permission of the poet; Barrett, Elizabeth: ‘Intimacy’ from The Bat Doctor, Wrecking Ball Press, 2005, reprinted by permission of the poet; Bell, Jo: ‘Magnets’ and ‘Muse’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Benyon, Kaddy: ‘Guacamole’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Bird, Caroline: ‘The Plague’ from Trouble Came to the Turnip, Carcanet, 2006, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press; Brackenbury, Alison: ‘And’, first published in London Magazine, reprinted by permission of the poet; Burt, Dan: ‘The End of the Affair’ and ‘The Faithful’ from We Look Like This, Carcanet, 2012, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press; Catallus, Gaius Valerius: ‘Carmen 16’, translation by G. M. Palmer, first published by Burlesque Press, reprinted by permission of the translator; Cavafy, C. P.: ‘Remember, Body …’ and ‘He Asked about the Quality’ from The Selected Poems of C. P. Cavafy, edited and translated by Avi Sharon, Penguin Classics, 2008. Translation and editorial matter copyright © Avi Sharon, 2008; Chase, Linda: ‘Young Men Dancing’ from Young Men Dancing, Smith/Doorstep Books, 1994, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press; Cookman, Leo: ‘Haikus to Fuck to’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Cope, Wendy: ‘From Strugnell’s Sonnets’ and ‘Message’ from Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, Faber, 1986, reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber; Copus, Julia: ‘In Defence of Adultery’ from In Defence of Adultery, Bloodaxe, 2004, reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books; cummings, e. e.: ‘i like my body when it is with your’. Copyright 1923, 1925, 1951, 1953 © 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976 by George J
ames Firmage, ‘may I feel said he’. Copyright 1935 © 1963, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1978 by George James Firmage, from Complete Poems: 1904–1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation; Duffy, Carol Ann: ‘Adultery’ from Mean Time. Copyright © Carol Ann Duffy, 1993. Reprinted by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd, 20 Powis Mews, London W11 1JN; Dyer, Claire: ‘Punctuation’, reprinted with permission, from Eleven Rooms by Claire Dyer, published by Two Rivers Press, 2013; Etchingham, John: ‘Explode’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Ewart, Gavin: ‘Ending’ and ‘Office Friendships’, reprinted by permission of Margo Ewart; Foyle, Naomi: ‘Animal, Vegetable, Mineral’ from The Night Pavilion, Waterloo Press, 2008, reprinted by permission of the poet; Frant, Robert: ‘Outside’ and ‘Flicker’, reprinted by permission of the author; Gallagher, Rhian: ‘Embrace’ from Salt Water Creek, Enitharmon Press, 2003, reprinted by permission of the publisher; Goodson, Rich: ‘Daniel Craig: The Screensaver’ and ‘Poem while Reading Miroslav Holub in the Genito-urinary Clinic Waiting Room’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Goss, Rebecca: ‘A Man Greets His Wife from Her Short Break Away’ from The Anatomy of Structures, Flambard Press, 2010, reprinted by permission of Flambard Press; Greenhill, Cora: ‘Out of the Office’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Hacker, Marilyn: ‘First I want you to come in my hand’ and ‘O Little One’ from Love, Death and the Changing of the Seasons. Copyright © 1986 by Marilyn Hacker; Hannah, Sophie: ‘Rubbish at Adultery’ from Pessimism for Beginners, Carcanet, 2007, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press; Harrold, A. F.: ‘And Looking Back’ and ‘And So Today Take Off My Wristwatch’ from Logic & the Heart, Two Rivers Press, 2004, reprinted by permission of the poet; Holland, Jane: ‘Cyber Infidelity’ and ‘Anal Obsessive’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Huey, Amarak: ‘Mick Jagger’s Penis Turns 69’ and ‘Whatever Happened to Sex?’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Jennings, Elizabeth: ‘One Flesh’ and ‘I Feel’ from New Collected Poems, Carcanet, 2001, reprinted by permission of David Higham Associates; Johnston, Paul: ‘The Wasp Station’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Key, Amy: ‘On being in Bed with Your Brand New Lover’, first published in the Erotic Review, reprinted by permission of the poet; Kinnell, Galway: ‘After Making Love We Hear Footsteps’ from Selected Poems, Bloodaxe, 2001, reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books; Laugher, Anna-May: ‘Tying the Knots’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Larkin, Philip: ‘Annus Mirabilis’ from Collected Poems, Faber, 2003, reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber; Layton, Irving: ‘The Final Coming’ excerpted from Dance with Desire by Irving Layton. Copyright © 1986, Irving Layton. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart / ‘Bicycle Pump’ excerpted from The Collected Poems of Irving Layton by Irving Layton. Copyright © 1971, Irving Layton. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart; Liardet, Tim: ‘Viginty Alley’, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Books; Lumsden, Roddy: ‘Troilism’ from Mischief Night: New and Selected Poems, Bloodaxe, 2004, reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books; McCauley, Amy: ‘Municipal Ambition’, first published by Ink Sweat & Tears, reprinted by permission of the poet; McGrane, Michelle: ‘If You Are Lucky’ from The Suitable Girl, Pindrop Press, 2010, reprinted by permission of the poet; McGrane, Paul: ‘Benny Hill’, first published in Nutshell and The Delinquent, reprinted by permission of the poet; Magennis, Nikki: ‘The Walk of Shame’ from Meeting Buddha in Dumbarton, Red Squirrel Press, 2014, reprinted by permission of the poet; Nichols, Grace: ‘My Black Triangle’ from I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems, Bloodaxe, 2010, reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books; Olds, Sharon: ‘Topography’ and ‘Sex without Love’ from Selected Poems, published by Jonathan Cape, reprinted by permission of The Random House Group; ovid: ‘Amores 1.5’ from The Erotic Poems by Ovid, translated with an Introduction by Peter Green (Penguin Classics, 1982). Copyright © Peter Green, 1982; Don Paterson: ‘Imperial’ and ‘Buggery’ from God’s Gift to Women, Faber, 1997, reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber; Patten, Brian: ‘You come to me quiet as rain not yet fallen’ from Notes to the Hanging Man. Copyright © Brian Patten, 1969. Reprinted by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White, 20 Powis Mews, London w11 1jn; Pindar, Ian: ‘On the French Riviera’ from Emporium, Carcanet, 2011, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press; Pitt-Kethley, Fiona: ‘Katya is Bored’, ‘Chris of Dublin’ and ‘Jaffa Cakes’ from the series Around the World in Eighty Lays, reprinted by permission of the poet; Rollinson, Neil: ‘Like the Blowing of Birds’ Eggs’ and ‘Ménage à Trois’ from A Spillage of Mercury, Jonathan Cape, 1996, reprinted by permission of the poet/‘Featherlite’ from Spanish Fly, Jonathan Cape, 2001, reprinted by permission of The Random House Group; Salway, Sarah: ‘Conception’ and ‘The Man in the Print Room’ from You Do Not Need Another Self-Help Book, Pindrop Press, 2012, reprinted by permission of the poet; Salzman, Eva: ‘An Epic in Me’ and ‘Can Clio Do More than Amuse?’ from Double Crossing: New and Selected Poems, Bloodaxe, 2004, reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books; Sandler, Rosie: ‘Found Wanting’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Sansom, Peter: ‘The Day He Met His Wife’ from Selected Poems, Carcanet, 2010, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press; Saunders, John: ‘In the Victoria Hotel’ from Chance, New Binary Press, Ireland, 2013, reprinted by permission of the poet; Schmidt, Michael: ‘Wanting to Think’ from Selected Poems 1972– 97, Carcanet, 1997, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press; Scott, Richard: ‘Sandcastles’, first published in Poetry London, reprinted by permission of the poet; Sheehan, Eileen: ‘Ego’ from Song of the Midnight Fox, Doghouse Books, 2004, reprinted by permission of Doghouse Books and the poet; Sisson, C. H.: ‘I Who Am’ and ‘Address’ from Poems: Selected, Carcanet, 1995, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press; Smith, Catherine: ‘Losing It to David Cassidy’ and ‘Eve to the Serpent’ from Lip, Smith/Doorstep Books, 2008, reprinted by permission of the poet; Taylor, Maria: ‘Hypothetical’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Tonks, Rosemary: ‘Story of a Hotel Room’, copyright © Rosemary Tonks, 1963 and ‘Badly Chosen Lover’, copyright © Rosemary Tonks, 1967, reprinted by permission of Sheil Land Associates; Whitworth, John: ‘Love & Sex & Boys in Showers’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Williams, Hugo: ‘Rhetorical Questions’, ‘Her News’ and ‘Saturday Morning’ from Collected Poems, Faber, 2005, reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber; Williams, William Carlos: ‘Arrival’ from Selected Poems (Penguin Modern Classics), 1976, edited by Charles Tomlinson, reprinted by permission of Pollinger Limited and New Directions; Willis, Samantha: ‘Fetish’, reprinted by permission of the poet; Woods, Gregory: ‘Service’ from The District Commissioner’s Dreams, Carcanet, 2002, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press; Wright, Kit: ‘The Dark Side of the Sole’ from Hoping It Might Be So, Faber, 2008, reprinted by permission of Faber & Faber.
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