Archive for the tag "poetry"

Still in the poetry corner: Head, heart and balls. (21/04/08)

Rapping about sex is nothing new. But it takes a cute Frenchman to do it in a classic metre, in a studio full of intellectuals sheathed in black. And to express so perfectly why public health programmes that appeal to only one of the three citadels of Boy are destined to fail. Thanks to Catherine […]

Poetry corner: How to continue (20/04/08)

Last night, I happened to be trawling around some of London’s gay entertainment establishments. I was struck by how much things have changed since John Ashbery was moved to write his classic elegy to AIDS, How to Continue. Here it is, lest we forget. How to Continueā€¯ by John Ashbery Oh there once was a […]

Girl is girl and man will sweetalk (05/04/08)

Jamaican-Ghanain poet Kwame Dawes has been reporting on HIV in his Caribbean homeland, in poetry and prose. He reads his poems on a snappy website, supported by the Pulitzer Center. Annoyingly, the site doesn’t allow for linking to specific items. I commend to you the poem Making Ends Meet, which tells of the delicate relationship […]

500 years of fucking in print (29/03/08)

London’s a great city to walk around; reading an anthology of London poetry before embarking on another epic city walk, I came across a couple of gems from the Scottish poet William Dunbar. Here’s Dunbar’s description of courtship, in a modern translation: “His pretty beard was combed and trimmed, but it was spattered with broth, […]