The Love of Boys—A Poem about Men & Love from The Poems of Tibullus & Sulpicia, ca. 55-19 BC

(trans. by AS Kline)

IV The Love of Boys

“So the protective shadows might be yours,
and your head not be harmed by sun or snow,
Priapus, what skill of yours captivates lovely lads?
For sure, you’ve no shining beard, or well-groomed hair:
naked you fulfil your role in the cold of cloudy winter,
naked too in the dry time of the Dog-Star’s heat.”
So I: then the rustic child of Bacchus answered me, so,
the god who’s armed with the curving hook.
“Oh beware of trusting the crowd of tender boys:
since they always offer a true cause for love.
This one pleases, that keeps a tight rein on his horse:
that one breaks the still waters with his snowy breast:
this one for his audacious bravery: while that one’s
virgin modesty mantles his tender cheeks.
But don’t let boredom seize you, if at first he denies you
fiercely: gradually his neck will yield to the yoke.
Length of time has taught lions to comply with man,
with length of time soft water wears away rock:
time ripens the grapes on the sunny slopes,
time drives the bright constellations on their sure course.
Don’t be afraid to swear: the winds bear vain oaths of love
over the lands and over the surface of the sea.
Huge thanks to Jove: the Father himself denied their power,
so that foolish Love might swear anything in passion:
and Diana lets you swear by her arrows with impunity
and Minerva lets you swear by her hair.
But if you linger you’re lost: how swift time flies!
The day does not stand idle or return.
How quickly the earth loses its rich purple hues,
how quickly the high poplar its lovely leaves.
How the horse is despised when weak old age’s fate
arrives, he who once shot from the starting gate at Elis.
I’ve seen a young man on whom later years now pressed
mourning his foolishness in days gone by.
Cruel gods! The snake renewed sheds his years:
but fate grants no delays to beauty.
Only for Bacchus and Phoebus is youth eternal:
and unshorn hair is fitting for both those gods.
You’ll yield to your boy in whatever he wants to try:
love always wins the most by deference.
You’ll not refuse to go, though he intends long journeys,
and the Dog-Star bakes the earth with parching drought,
though the brimming rainbow, threatens coming storm,
painting the heavens with its purple hues.
If he wants to sail the blue waves in a boat, with the oar
drive the light vessel through the waves yourself.
Don’t complain at submitting yourself to hard labour
or roughening your hands unused to work:
while you still please, if he wants to trap deep valleys,
don’t let your shoulders refuse to bear the hunting nets.
If he wants to fight, try to play at it with a light hand:
often leave your flank exposed so he can win.
Then he’ll be gentle with you, then you may snatch
that precious kiss: he’ll struggle but let you take it.
At first he’ll let you snatch it, later he’ll bring it himself
when asked, and then even want to hang about your neck.
Sadly alas these times now produce wretched arts:
now tender boys are accustomed to wanting gifts.
You, whoever you are, who first taught the sale of love
may a fateful stone press down on your bones.
Boys, love the Muses and the learned poets,
let no golden gifts outweigh the Muses.
Through poetry Nisus’s lock of hair’s still purple,
without verse no ivory gleams on Pelop’s shoulder.
He the Muses name, shall live, while earth bears oaks,
while heaven bears stars, while rivers carry water.
But he who cannot hear the Muses, he who sells love,
let him follow the chariot of Idaean Ops, and traverse
three hundred cities with his wanderings,
and cut at his worthless limbs, in the Phrygian way.
Venus wants room for blandishments: she favours
complaining suppliants and wretched weeping.”
These things the god’s mouth told me, to sing to Titius:
but Titius’s wife forbids him to remember them.
Let him listen to her: but you praise me as master,
you whom sadly a wily boy possesses, by wicked art.
Each has his own glory: let despised lovers consult me:
my doors are open wide to everyone.
A time will come when a loyal crowd of young men
shall lead my aged self along, carrying the laws of Venus.
Alas how Marathus torments me with love’s delay!
…’

“Who to Be Kind to”—A Poem by Allen Ginsberg

A Homosexual, a Pioneer, a Human rights Activist, & a Fiery Freedom Fighter—Hung by the Crown for Treason: Meet Sir Robert Casement

Untold story of one of the most horrifying crimes of the twentieth century.

In September 1910, the human rights activist and anti-imperialist Roger Casement arrived in the Amazon to investigate reports of widespread human rights abuses in the vast forests stretching along the Putumayo river. There, the Peruvian entrepreneur Julio César Arana ran an area the size of Belgium as his own private fiefdom; his British registered company operated a systematic programme of torture, exploitation and murder.

Fresh from documenting the scarcely imaginable atrocities perpetrated by King Leopold in the Congo, Casement was confronted with an all too recognisable scenario. He uncovered an appalling catalogue of abuse: nearly 30,000 Indians had died to produce four thousand tonnes of rubber.

From the Peruvian rainforests to the City of London, Jordan Goodman, in The Devil and Mr. Casement, recounts a crime against humanity that history has almost forgotten, but whose exposure in 1912 sent shockwaves around the world. Drawing on a wealth of original research, The Devil and Mr Casement is a story of colonial exploitation and corporate greed with enormous contemporary political resonance.

Reviews

“Meticulously researched … A riveting, if harrowing, narrative which, in its treatment of corporate greed and exploitation, is full of contemporary resonance. A rich, moving, important book.” – Independent on Sunday

Above, clockwise: Casement in his 50s, he would be executed shortly; walking out of court after his appeal had been denied; Casement’s funeral in Ireland.

The New Yorker:

In 1910, the British government asked Roger Casement, a consular official, to investigate reports that a British-registered rubber-trading company was exploiting Barbadian workers in the Amazon. Intrepid and resourceful, Casement gathered testimonies about the armed extortion and debt bondage that supported the rubber trade. Back in London, he championed the rights of the Barbadian migrants as well as those of the indigenous Indians, tens of thousands of whom had died harvesting wild rubber for their masters. Casement was knighted for his efforts. But the adulation did not last. An Irish nationalist, he eventually left the consular services and devoted himself to organizing and arming the Irish Volunteers. In 1916, he was arrested and hanged for treason. With vivid touches of imagination and humor, Goodman captures the drama and paradox of Casement’s varied life. ♦

Tumblr:

In 1910, the British government asked Roger Casement, a consular official, to investigate reports that a British-registered rubber-trading company was exploiting Barbadian workers in the Amazon. Intrepid and resourceful, Casement gathered testimonies about the armed extortion and debt bondage that supported the rubber trade. Back in London, he championed the rights of the Barbadian migrants as well as those of the indigenous Indians, tens of thousands of whom had died harvesting wild rubber for their masters. Casement was knighted for his efforts. But the adulation did not last. An Irish nationalist, he eventually left the consular services and devoted himself to organizing and arming the Irish Volunteers. In 1916, he was arrested and hanged for treason. With vivid touches of imagination and humor, Goodman captures the drama and paradox of Casement’s varied life. ♦

Further Reading

https://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/casement.htm

http://www.easter1916.ie/index.php/people/a-z/roger-casement/

https://www.planetromeo.com/en/blog/gay-history-sir-roger-casement/

https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/the-life-and-death-of-roger-casement

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/28/roger-casement-gay-irish-martyr-or-victim-of-a-british-forgery

https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/roger-casement-easter-rising-executed

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n17/colm-toibin/a-man-of-no-mind

https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/11/roger-casement-the-gay-irish-humanitarian-who-was-hanged-on-a-comma

Click thumbnails to enlarge images:

Link to The Devil and Mr. Casement

❤️💜💙💚💛🧡💗

A Poem a Day—#1: “The Dream of a Common Language” by Leigh Stein

The Dream of a Common Language

after Adrienne Rich

On Wednesdays I take the train past Yankee Stadium,
to a place where it is never a given that I speak the language,
to a place where graffiti covers the mural they painted to hide
the graffiti, to a place where the children call me Miss Miss
Miss Miss Miss and I find in one of their poems, a self-portrait,
the line I wish I was rish. The dream of a common language

is the language of one million dollars, of basketball, of plátanos.
Are the kids black? my boyfriend wants to know. Dominican.
It’s different. When asked to write down a question
they wish they could ask their mom or dad, one boy writes,
Paper or plastic? A girl in the back of the class wants to know
Why don’t I have lycene, translating the sound of the color

of my skin into her own language. The best poet
in sixth grade is the girl who is this year repeating
sixth grade. When I tell her teacher of her talent
she says, At least now we know she’s good
at something. To speak their language, I study
the attendance list, practice the cadence of their names.

Yesterday I presented a black and white portrait of a black man,
his bald head turned away from us, a spotted moth resting
on one shoulder. I told them this is a man serving a life
sentence in Louisiana. Is this art? Without hesitation,
one girl said no, why would anybody
want to take a picture
of that.

—Leigh Stein

from Poem-a-Day, 365 Poems for Every Occasion, Abrams Image, 2015

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Leigh Stein is the author of the poetry collection Dispatch from the Future (Melville House, 2012). She lives in Brooklyn and teaches poetry in New York City’s public schools. She has also written a memoir: Land of Enchantment; and a novel: The Fallback Plan. Stein is co-founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit literary organization Out of the Binders. For her advocacy work, she has been called a “leading feminist” by the Washington Post, and a “woman of influence” by New York Business Journal.

Burt & Ernie Gay? According to Their Creator They Always Have Been—& His Comment Has Sesame Street Bigwigs Falling All Over Themselves…

‘”…are Bert & Ernie lovers?” And [I thought] that, coming from a preschooler, was fun. And that got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it. And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were.’ –Bert & Ernie’s Creator, Writer Mark Saltzman 

from Queerty, September 22, 2018…

‘Fuck Sesame Street and Their Weak “Bert and Ernie Aren’t Gay” Statement

Earlier this week, Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman confirmed a long-debated theory; whether Bert and Ernie were a little more than just friends. He told Queerty how even a pre-schooler picked up on the issue:

“I remember one time that a column from The San Francisco Chronicle, a preschooler in the city turned to mom and asked, “are Bert & Ernie lovers?” And that, coming from a preschooler was fun. And that got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it. And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were. I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them. ”

Well, now the bigwigs at Sesame Street are denying that the puppet pair is any more than friends. You know, because they’re puppets.

“As we have always said, Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach pre-schoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”

Don’t exist below the waist?

You mean “unless we’re marketing toys and books and other products”–cause these look A LOT like legs and feet to me, Sesame Street…

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“Please see our statement below regarding Bert and Ernie. pic.twitter.com/6r2j0XrKYu”

— Sesame Workshop (@SesameWorkshop) September 18, 2018

(Interestingly, the above Twitter link no longer exists.)

Well, I think, to most humans, we can recognise that Bert and Ernie are indeed puppets, and therefore aren’t actually tossing each other off behind Oscar The Grouch’s trash can. Just like how – as puppets – they’re not actually grabbing a couple pints and watching the footie game down the pub.

As puppets, they can be as much lovers as they can friends. Not to mention that Miss Piggy and Kermit (both puppets) were quite clearly a couple. And Oscar had an obvious side-bitch.

They then released another—very similar—statement, which repeated the rehearsed mantra about children learning acceptance. Surprise.

“Sesame Street has always stood for inclusion and acceptance. It’s a place where people of all cultures and backgrounds are welcome. Bert and Ernie were created to be best friends, and to teach young children that people can get along with those who are very different from themselves.”

It’s quite clear that the producers of Sesame Street have the deludedly dreaded fear that children learning that gay couples exist will turn them gay. Which would explain why they have the limited intelligence to produce nothing more than a puppet TV show for 4-year-olds.

Although, I think perhaps on some level they realise that TV shows don ‘t make people gay, but encourage gay children to live as their authentic self, but even so, it leads to the same unwanted outcome: more gay people. Their thinly-veiled attempt to divert their homophobia to acceptance and diversity, is quite frankly, at the level of a 4-year-old.

And also let’s just get this clear, Sesame Street did not create these characters… Saltzman did. Saltzman has already said that they were intended to be in a homosexual relationship, and so for Sesame Street to step forward and actively deny this, (rather than allowing his comment to pass by), demonstrates that they were probably keen not to offend the fellow homophobic parents of middle America.

A retraction that could only ever be bought by Trump supporters. And 4-year-olds.^

–-Images: Wikioedia, Pinterest, & Queerty.

Further Reading 

Why it matters that Bert and Ernie are gay, which they are:

It’s a way to tell more kids that they, too, belong in the world…

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/9/19/17879916/bert-ernie-gay-sesame-street-mark-saltzman-controversy

and…

“I’m mad about the boy…” Meet The Housesitter—A beautiful indie adult film that’s getting some recognition at the Pop Montreal cultural festival

Canadian Rapper Josh “Socalled” Dolgin discovers the joys of making an arthouse adult film, “The Housesitter,” which will have its premiere at the Pop Montreal cultural festival.

A Canadian rapper and record producer has made his own adult film—and shot the whole thing in his parents’ house, while they were away on holiday.

Joshua Dolgin, whose stage name is “Socalled”, kept his plans from his parents and only told them after he had finished shooting.

The openly gay artist said the film was “in part” a reaction to turning 40; adding that he didn’t think of it as a “mid-life crisis movie,” but rather as a “mid-life celebration movie”.

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You know here at The Sanguine Woods I have always—and will always—openly and proudly support love that rebels agains the expectations of obtuse societal mores, themes and symbols that stand up to ugly gender-normative stereotypes, and anything else that hurts love for love’s sake and the right of every person to be true to who they are.

So when I came across this trailer and read about this film, I wanted to share it.

It looks like a beautiful piece…

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Everything is very casual and very natural—all integral to Socalled’s vision for the film project. But it’s not your common everyday shallow adult film. There are also forays into the fantastical—there’s a strange dream sequence, for instance, when Wilson and Braun meet up in the snow wearing 17th-century-style masquerade accessories. (No more spoilers!)

“I love sex and I love great photography and film,” Dolgin said, “so this is a combination of the two. I’m blessed as an artist because I have enough of a name that I can try new things, but I’m not so famous that I have limits. “I just want to pursue my passions. This is part of that,” he added.

Dolgin saw his opportunity to make the film after he learned that his parents would be away for at least a month during the winter. “I think it’s still sinking in with my dad,” Dolgin said, “but he’ll deal with it.”

He wrote a script for the film and also cast German adult film star Valentin Braun to appear alongside actor River Wilson in the film. Dolgin’s vision was a film “that’s beautiful and has integrity, you know, just in case you decide to whip it on after the appetizers have been served.”

Oh, but, the evening’s just beginning, Socalled.

I’m getting more of a dessert vibe here.

😉

 

Don’t Be an Obtuse Cretin—Support Films That ALSO Show Love Between Same-Sex Couples…Because That’s the HUMAN Story

(Queerty)

I would hope that my readers here at The Sanguine Woods are a group of mature compassionate adults—I believe you are.

Lord knows LGBTQI people have sat through decade after decade of heterosexual love scenes—we think they’re beautiful examples of human affection and desire—but they don’t tell the WHOLE story do they? Sex between consenting adults, regardless of their gender or sexuality identification category is the truth.

It’s the human story.

That being said…below is the article that inspired this post…give us a Like if you enjoy The Sanguine Woods. We fully support our LGBTQI family as well as our straight family.

Thank you, friends.

🏳️‍🌈TSW

(IMDb)

When we hear about a movie that’s caused upper-crust audience members to walk out half way through clutching their pearls, it officially has our attention.

And when the challenging material in question just so happens to be envelope-pushing gay sex scenes, well, where do we buy outr tickets?

Camille Vidal-Naquet’s new film Sauvage (to be released as Wild in the US) did just that at this years Cannes Film Festival. On top of the salacious nature of the “controversy”, however, Sauvage also received critical acclaim for its honest and painful exploration of the life of a young gay prostitute.

It centers around 22-year-old Leo, who has been working the streets in France. He’s played by the very talented Félix Maritaud, whom you may remember as Max from last year’s BPM.

Félix Maritaud (IMDb).

Vidal-Naquet has talked about the graphic content with the press, calling it “honest.”

—Queerty

Nice. And isn’t that a primary goal of any art form?

Honesty? 👍✌️🏳️‍🌈💜

(And, P.S. All you film-festival “pearl clutchers”? 🖕)

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Check out the trailer for Wild (Sauvage) below:

Blush & Blue 4

Photo (c)2018 by Sanguine Woods.

All the (stupid) Gender-normative bullsheist aside—you KNOW you have a fantasy in the noggin storeroom w that 70’s Tom-of-Finland mustache! (to quote Mccauley Caulkin: “We ALL do!”)

Rock on brother. Rock. On.

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FYI: The art of “Tom of Finland” ca. 1970s (tumblr).