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The Living Gay Word was created on April 16, 2010, in celebration of National Poetry Month, as an archive, resource, and living community for those whose passions point them toward gay male poetry (however you define the words "gay" and "male"). The idea was to bring together as many living poets as we can find, to provide samples of their work, short bios, a bibliography, news of forthcoming books, links to home pages—and anything else that evolves.
The content for this site is developed from THE LIVING GAY WORD blog, located at http://thelivinggayword.blogspot.com. Anyone may submit work, and is encouraged to do so. For submission guidelines e-mail onemanzbooks@mac.com.
This is a new site, and what happens here will depend entirely on partipation, so let's hope it's vigorous. The word of the day from wordsmith.org for April 16, 2010, is "maffick," which means to party heartily. So let the poetic mafficking commence!— Michael Lassell
Featured Poem
"Washing the Corpse"by Michael Klein
After he was dead we washed his body.
Nick and Michael and I stood in Billy's hospital room
and after whatever it was (his spirit looking for the door?)
stopped making the room vibrate and lighten and become heavy again
we took the washcloth or whatever it was—something from the hospital, something rising
hotly out of a silver basin—and started at his feet
and worked our way up the body that was only his body on the bed.
And the women that had been in the room
while the spirit was directing the air
had left the room so that itwas now only men
only us doing the last thing that would ever be cone to Billy's body.
We were making Billy new.
We were making Billy what was over.
Copyright © 2010 by Michael Klein