Authors: Sophie Hannah
Tags: #Poetry, #Anthologies (Multiple Authors), #Health & Fitness, #Sexuality
The Poetry of Sex (13 page)
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.
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 … !
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.
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 James 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.
