Pages

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Poetry Thursday: About Sex

This week's prompt for Poetry Thursday was to write about sex. That's a topic that doesn't usually make its way into my poetry. Not that I don't enjoy reading well-written poetry that includes sex, I just don't write about it. To tell the truth, I think I am far more at ease inside my head than in my body.

Still, I have one poem that I wrote recently that does mention sex. I'm not sure that it is actually about sex, but it does mention it. Now, it's a bit offbeat, and I don't usually like explanations of poetry. If I go to a reading, and someone feels obliged to give a long explanation of their poem, I tend to find myself thinking "Enough already! Just read the damn thing." There is a reference in this poem that you might remember if you have been reading my blog for a while. Otherwise, I am going to let it stand without explanation at first, and I will add some background to the comments in a day or so.

On Not Being Charles Lindbergh

Snow on the ground
we are lying in bed
cold outlines the curves of our thighs
making love with socks on
thinking about
Charles Nunsegger and Francois Coli
missing over the Atlantic
with ten days’ supply
of caviar and bananas.

By the way, all writing on this blog is copyright to me. One of these days I will put a note in the sidebar.

14 comments:

November Rain said...

noting copyrights is a good idea you can also activate the link bar under the title to add a coypright


btw here via michelles

mareymercy said...

Ha - I like this. Odd and clever...

FYI: If you go to creativecommons.org you can put a copyright at the bottom of your blog that covers you.

Kay Cooke said...

Ha Catherine this is a magnificent example of sex - comfortable, comforting, well-travelled sex. I love the socks bit - sex with socks on flows so well off the tongue - Oops, no wasn't meant to be a pun ... oh dear, - isn't it funny how when you bring sex (or even when you don't) into the equation EVERYTHING seems to suddenly take on sexual connotations? Siggy has a lot to answer for!

writingblind said...

I love this poem, I don't know why you would need to explain anything.

Jim Brock said...

What a knockout poem! So fun to start a poem with such a title . . . yes, it is so not being Charles Lindbergh.

Deb R said...

I remember you posting the news bit about the caviar and bananas. Cool poem!

Yolanda said...

I really like this poem and thanks for visting my blog and your comments on the haiku.

Verity said...

Absolutely wonderful, love the making love with socks on and the caviar and bananas, spot on.

Anonymous said...

Protest all you like. That was a poem about sex.

Dani In NC said...

I've always thought of "sex with socks on" as something sleazy, like a guy who wants to get up and leave in a hurry after the act. You make it sound comfortable, like a couple that doesn't need to put on airs for each other.

Catherine said...

Thanks to those who offered suggestions re copyright. Of course the internet is international, and copyright law is different in different countries, so i'm not sure which countries the Creative Commons button will cover me in. Still, I'm not overly bothered by it, since I don't expect to make money from anything that is published here.

Writing blind - often we feel more need to explain our poems than is really necessary. That's why I held off, I wanted to see what people would make of it without explanations. I'm glad that it came across so well without them.

Neil - well yes, it was about sex. But alos about human frailty and something I can't quite put my finger on. If I knew what it was about, I wouldn't have needed to write the poem :)

Dani - it was "sex with socks on" because my feet were so damned cold. They were very thick woollen socks :)

The background: Charles Nunsegger and Francois Coli were two French aviators who tried to cross the Atlantic a week or so before Charles Lindbergh succeeded. They went missing and were never found. Apparently they had with them ten days supply of food, mainly caviar and bananas. I found the item on a newspaper page from my family history file, the same page carried the obituary of my greatgrandfather's brother which was why I had it. I read it on this very cold day when we had a heavy snowfall, unusual in my city.

Madeleine said...

eh...cute...very cute. clever and witty. so funny to hear about the snow and the sock wearing in bed......we're soooo hot here..

thanks for showing us this it brought a smile to my face :)

Anonymous said...

I love this. And aren't all sex poems also about human frailty and something we can't quite put our fingers on?

paris parfait said...

Fascinating poem! Will catch up w/ you soon via e-mail. Thank you for your lovely and much-appreciated messages recently.