Too Far, I say. TOO FAR!!!

How much has changed since the fifties?
A lot of you have been very offended by the fact that I like women in lingerie and think that they bring an air of sexiness that poetry deserves. The word trashy has come up a lot. I don't think that women in lingerie are trashy.
This is particularly interesting because I have always been one of the minority of men who finds pornography unappealing. I have learned not to judge it because every time I do
there is a flurry of objections. Everyone jumps at the chance to call me a puritan or whatever every time I say that porn is kind of gross. Now I just accept that it isn't for me. Why is it OK for you to say the girls in lingerie are trashy and that I am trashy for finding them attractive? Because, let's be honest, when you say that my blog is "disgusting" or "trashy" you are saying that I am disgusting and trashy. But who the fuck are you? Judge, jury, and executioner, apparently. If you have something to say about it, come up with something better than "trashy" or "disgusting." That is, unless you are judging me based on some kind of religious ethos. If you are a religious zealot, call me what you will. It's fun to be called names by the likes of zealots. But this is not the fifties. You have to come up with something better than one simple little adjective based on your high-horsed moral judgment.

I am turned on by poems, scantily clad women, Shakespeare, the intrigue of the court, and heated arguments. I hope that I can bring them all here. I don't care if you hate me. That's not true: I care if you hate me, but I don't care if you hate my blog. Poetry, Shakespeare, scantily clad women, and intrigue of the court are all in good fun. If you don't like fun, you won't like this blog.

Ridicule: I think that ridicule falls in the intrigue of the court pile. A couple days ago, I kind of attacked a poet who is very successful and who seems to thrive on publicity. In poetry, she is a public figure. Public figures are open game for cartoons, parody, and straight personal attacks. Consider Paris and Bush. Being a public person in our tiny circle, you are open to ridicule within it. A person I really respect called this attack disgusting. I erased it. People who didn't think it was disgusting said it was disgusting that I took down the post just because of what one person thought. Why is the opinion of one person more valid than another's?

Ah, but you always go a little too far.

I hate this. What is too far? Mr. Matisse, you've gone too far. Too far in poetry is when you push the reader out of the poem and his enjoyment of it. What is too far for some is not too far for others. Hurt my feelings. When I look back on my life, the times I did my best work were the ones when I was hurt. We all need a little hurt. To go home crying from time to time. What separates people is whether you get up the next morning to try again. Face those who shunned you, impress those who are least inclined to be impressed. Nothing is more enjoyable than when I find a piece I love from someone I hate. I also love hating the poems of my enemies, but the elation I experience from an amazing poem of theirs is nonpareil.

Mr. Icarus, you have gone too far.

Watch while poetry destroys my life.

If you think that women in lingerie are trashy, you need to reevaluate some things in your life or start voting republican or join your local church. I think they are tragic and beautiful. I think they are the saddest looking deer in the forest.

If you are going to get angry because I said something mean about your friend, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe start a gang or something? That way I'll know not to dis someone wearing your colors.

I mean, I was making fun of someone for constantly "mn-ing" in the audience. Everyone hates that. And I was called disgusting. Totally unfair.