Poetic Exhibition:  The Safety of a Glass Wall

Is poetry a form of exhibition? Poets often claim that personal events and emotions inspire them, and they write for themselves.  Why then, do they make such a concerted effort to entice? If poetry were simply a medium to release private devils, it would never find its way to the public.  Graphic language and vivid imagery stroke our voyeuristic tendencies, while giving poets a glass wall to hide behind.  There they find themselves in safety and comfort, free to tease and perform.

 Some poets find their poems a place for sexual display.  Like a peacock, showing his feathers, Li-young Lee places himself on display.  In “The City in Which I love You,” he goes on an arduous journey in order to find a mate, and along the way, compares himself to a hero.  He is his ultimate promoter in this primitive mating ritual. Asserting his manhood, he becomes an arched-necked stallion, a soldier, or a knight at arms.   Women find themselves attracted to this Homeric adventurer’s courtship, and do not question the validity of his claims.

 My tongue remembers your wounded flavor.

The vein in my neck

adores you.  A sword

stands up between  my hips,

my hidden fleece sends forth its scent of human oil.

Lee’s Poetry becomes a forum for boasting and masculinity.  It allows a poet to display his quality, while protected behind a curtain of metaphor.  Exaggerated imagery and climactic events may also be used in a calculated transformation.  In a method similar to Cyrano de Bergerac’s, poetry can metamorphose a common man into a powerful lover, while disguising his flaws.

In “Relish”, Miguel Algarin describes a graphic sexual experience and covertly illustrates himself as a tender lover.  The words create an illusion of sexual power, by distracting with intimate details.  So much time is spent, pondering the quality of language, that an assumption is automatically formed of the act being truth.  The poet cleverly forces us into his propaganda, as such detailed verse must be and honest confession.

I’m frightened by so much heat,

sweating so much desire, sliding,

greased by tenderness,

enduring the sensual whirlpool

of your lips moistened by mutual saliva,

If details are sometimes blinding to the truth, so can they reinforce it.  Poets may use dirty adjectives to justify their natures.  A detailed and sometimes vulgar description of a sexual experience allows James L. White to soften the blow of his homosexuality.   “The First Time” allows James to promote his life choices, while forgiving others for loving women.  He acknowledges their acts briefly, but his own loving is so vivid and detailed, that it becomes the only way that is real.  The act is so fascinating to watch, that it loses its taboo.

We’re bunglers when it’s really good:

bow legs, pimply backs, scrawny chest hair,

full of mistakes and good intentions.

And it doesn’t have to do with women.

They’re fine too.

Just some understanding between two men.

Exhibition is a powerful tool for manipulation.  By putting an act on display, it becomes a thing of importance and beauty.  Poets’ quirks become endearing, and their odd natures arousing.  By putting herself on the line, Lucille Clifton is able to promote features, and turn traditionally negative attributes into qualities that all women would like to possess.  “homage to my hips” allows her to reclaim power from a patriarchal society, and voyeurs become her worshippers as they watch a role reversal take place.  A woman expected to be submissive, becomes the dominant force by exhibiting her sexiness.  There is never a thought to question the verity of her claims, and her power becomes overwhelming.

these hips are mighty hips.

these hips are magic hips.

i have known them

to put a spell on a man and

spin him like a top!

Shyness and morality make a common vulnerability to messages hidden within those events which are normally kept discrete.  A poet with a controversial message may use our morbid fascination by performing a private act publicly in a calculated and hypnotic fashion.  Unable to avert eyes, we find ourselves caught in the moment, and fall victim to their message.

There is a metaphoric design to poetry which allows stigmatized behavior to lose its social taboo.  When private is made public on paper, it loses some of its shock value, but retains enough intimate details to attract.  When an erotic moment becomes public, it can be made political.

Poets take pride in their public acts, and set themselves up to be models to the common man.  In an egoistic fashion, they are transformed into deities. Their messages become ideal, and their ethics become the morals of society.  The smoke and mirrors of poetry, are faithfully accepted by the voyeuristic, and ultimately become real. Meanwhile, the poet has never truly left the safety of the glass wall.