Homoerotic Tanka

I'm pleased to have a solo show and interview at 3Lights Gallery online. Liam Wilkinson has done a lovely job as usual presenting my work. I like his conceit of the gallery exhibiting poetry as if it were art. The theme of the exhibit, homoerotic tanka, is one that I often write, but which people often fail to realize. With a gender-non-specific pen name like 'M. Kei' it leaves the poems open to interpretation with the reader filling in whatever gender suits his or her taste. Which explains why I have been mistaken for a woman online... poems addressed to male lovers are assumed to have been written by a woman.

rattlesnake love—
you gave me warning,
but I, entranced
by your desert heart,
wouldn't heed it

(Fire Pearls, 2006)


Full well do I know
that this transient pleasure
is like foam on the sea;
Yet even so I want it
to last a thousand years

(Simply Haiku, Summer, 2006)


his burlap skin
washed by the
diamond waters,
and everywhere,
jellyfish in bloom

(Modern English Tanka, Winter, 2006)


Persian carpet,
my denim leg over
your bare one,
my book resting
against your back

(Gusts #6, 2007)

The above tanka are all homoerotic poems that have been published in various places without drawing attention to the fact that they are poems of male love. 'Persian carpet' was inspired by a Tom of Finland drawing, and when I saw it published in Gusts, I realized that I had to do something to make the context explicit if I wanted these poems to be seen as I felt them. I am grateful to Liam Wilkinson for his openness to publishing a collection of this sort.

I have searched the Internet for other gay tanka and there aren't many, and even fewer that are good. My own style is an indirect one, so that makes it difficult to write poems which are frank in their appreciation of male love and friendship. There is also the perception that gay=pornographic, that anything gay must be full of explicit homosexual sex acts. I suspect the reason why the insistence of a gay extreme for sexuality is because the line between male friendship and homoeroticism is a slim one and easily crossed. People become uncomfortable if they suspect a relationship might be perceived as 'abnormal' in some way. They justifiably object to viewers reading something into a relationship that does not exist. Therefore they exaggerate the differences between male intimacy and homosexuality.

One of the reasons why the exhibit carries the subtitle 'homoerotic tanka of love and friendship' is to acknowledge this continuum of male feelings and to permit the publishing of poetry without building a wall between friendship and sexuality. My own experience with soldiers, for example, suggests to me that the emotional intimacy that develops in men who serve together in harsh conditions is not foreign to sexuality. This is not to say that soldiers' relationships are erotic, but to acknowledge that men are emotional beings as well as physical, and that the emotional intimacy that men can develop is very powerful. Whether a man is a soldier or a lover, the capacity for emotional connection is there. Not only there, but desirable and necessary if we are to be a civilized people.

American men in particular are deeply constrained in their self-expression to the roles of bad-ass action hero and buffoon, often at the same time (especially if he is black). More desirable and finely nuanced roles -- such as father -- are hard to sustain. Contempt for men is widespread. Teenage girls walk around wearing t-shirts that say, "Boys have feelings too, but who cares?"

I do. Part of coming out gay is not only a matter of coming out with regards to one's sexual orientation, but a coming out to demand to be perceived and respected as a whole person, not just a set of genitalia driven by hormonal urges searching for a compatible set of genitalia with which to mate. I don't want to have sex with men as much as I want to be able to hold hands with a male lover and walk down the street in safety. The most important reason I use a pen name for my poetry is so that I can write what I want to write and feel reasonably safe. I want the right to be a whole person, without being stereotyped, denigrated, channeled, ignored, assaulted, and discriminated against.

~K~

Love Letters : Homoerotic Tanka of Love and Friendship

M. KEI : LOVE LETTERS

One of tanka's most distinctive and passionate of voices makes his return to 3LIGHTS this Summer with an exhibition of homoerotic tanka of love and friendship. Although many would associate M. Kei's poetry with images of the ocean, the coast and his native Chesapeake Bay, this latest exhibition from the editor of such publications as Atlas Poetica, Fire Pearls and author of Heron Sea, homes in on tanka of a more personal nature. We are proud to present this exhibition and delighted to welcome back a good friend of the Gallery.

M. Kei: Love Letters: Homoerotic Tanka of Love and Friendship
3LIGHTS Gallery, July 1st - September 31st 2008

http://www.threelightsgallery.com/foyer.html

3LIGHTS GALLERY | NEWSLETTER

3LIGHTS GALLERY | NEWSLETTER

Autumn 2007


TANKAFALL | October 1st - December 31st 2007

For our fourth open-submission exhibition since our launch in January we're delighted to present Tankafall, dedicated entirely to tanka. 3LIGHTS is pleased to welcome back writers such as Bob Lucky, Fran Masat and Matthew Paul for this Autumnal exhibition, as well as a host of newcomers to the gallery, many of whom have been making their mark in the pages of modern tanka magazines and journals across the globe.

Tankafall is now open at www.threelightsgallery.com.

If you have submitted poems for inclusion in Tankafall and haven't made it into the final line-up, why not submit again to be considered for our next open-submission exhibition. Details can be found below.


SUBMISSION CALL : NOCTURNE
Closing Date: December 10th 2007

From January 2008, it's lights out at 3LIGHTS! Our first open-submission exhibition of 2008, Nocturne, will be a celebration of the dark hours that fall between dusk and dawn. If you've ever stayed up into the night, sipping black coffee, collecting the haiku, senryu and tanka as they fall onto the lamp-lit page, then you may have the poems we're looking for.

Submit up to ten haiku/senryu/tanka to threelightsgallery@yahoo.co.uk with a brief biography by December 10th 2007.

See our submissions page for more details at www.threelightsgallery.com/submissions.


M. KEI : AUTUMN WATER | October 1st - December 31st 2007

3LIGHTS has been lucky enough to present a selection of M. Kei's tanka previously, but now we're thrilled to present an exhibition of over twenty of his poems.

M. Kei's work is filled to the brim with a drama that can only be found at sea and along its salty coastlines. Whether aboard the Skipjack Martha Lewis or on the shores of his beloved Chesapeake Bay, M. Kei continues to deliver consistently stirring tanka, and his voice on the modern tanka scene is becoming evermore distinct and influential. We’re lucky to have him and it’s a great pleasure for 3LIGHTS to present a hand-picked selection of his tanka, along with a revealing interview with the man himself.

Autumn Water runs until the end of the year. It's now open at www.threelightsgallery.com.


OUR NEW ADDRESS

Since our last exhibition opened in the Summer, we've moved home. Find 3LIGHTS at www.threelightsgallery.com and enjoy a more visual and jam-packed online gallery of haiku, senryu and tanka.


THANK YOU

Finally, a thank you.

3LIGHTS has been open since January 1st 2007 and, since then, has welcomed a vast amount of high-quality submissions of haiku, senryu and tanka from across the globe. We have endeavoured to exhibit successful work in a range of online exhibitions in the hope that your reading experience is enhanced.

We're grateful for every submission and look forward to reading more. Next year we will present another twelve months of themed exhibitions and solo shows from new and established writers. We hope you can join us.

Thank you all.

Liam Wilkinson, October 2007








Editor: Liam Wilkinson
threelightsgallery@yahoo.co.uk


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3LIGHTS | GALLERY
www.threelightsgallery.com

3LIGHTS Gallery is an online gallery of haiku and related, short form poetry, submitted by
new and established writers. It is edited and curated by Liam Wilkinson & Diane Sturch.
3LIGHTS is based in the North of England.

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Autumn Water

I will have my first solo exhibit of poetry at the 3Lights Gallery from October - December of this year. Entitled 'Autumn Water,' the title is the theme. Included with the poetry are photographs from the Skipjack Martha Lewis. The exhibit isn't done yet and won't be ready for a public unveiling until October 1, but what I've seen so far is absolutely beautiful. I really love the way curator Liam Wilkinson is making my vision come together in a gorgeous exhibit.

The 3Lights Gallery is set up to present haiku and tanka as if they were art, and so the visitor tours a virtual gallery to study the poetry, much the way one contemplates art objects in a gallery. The presentation is effective, and more visceral than the usual literary journal presentation. Utilizing the web to include color and image really enhances the experience in a way that cannot be done in a purely textual medium.

Art and haiku and tanka have been combined before in the form known as haiga, but this 'art gallery' conceit is different. In haiga a single image and single poem are combined in a gestalt, but with the gallery concept, the photographs are important works of art in themselves. They complement but are not subsumed in the poetry. The intergration is not as tight, space is left between image and poem for the reader to breathe and think. The combination really works and I can't wait to see the finished product!

~K~