9 LGBT Poets To Know And Love
For as long as there’s been language, writers and storytellers have crafted poetry to tease meaning out of the chaos. Great poetry reveals unto its readers new and profound truths about life, and works to tackle the big unanswerables of love, loss and identity.
As Aristotle so wisely put it, "Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular." While not all poetry reaches all readers, when the right poem is read at the right time by the right person, the effects can be truly eye-opening.
For those looking to dig into some nuanced and eye-opening poetry that deals with queer themes, check out our list below for a small sampling of some great LGBT poets.
1. Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
With a masculine swagger, a thick mane of silver hair and a mischievous twinkle in his eye, Walt Whitman was, without question, the original daddy bear. And though, given the time period in which he lived, it was impossible for him to be fully “out,” the buoyant poetry in his opus Leaves of Grass is deliciously homoerotic and speaks effusively of the rich love shared between men.
Plus, he’s rumored to have had a short tryst with the much younger Oscar Wilde, who referred to Whitman simply as "Daddy." (*Gulp*)
“We Two Boys Together Clinging”:
We two boys together clinging
One the other never leaving
Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making,
Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,
Arm'd and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving,
No law less than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering, thieving, threatening,
Misers, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, water drinking, on the turf or the sea-beach dancing,
Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, feebleness chasing,
Fulfilling our foray.
2. Charlotte Mew (1869-1928)
Though hardly a household name today, Charlotte Mew made her mark at the turn of the twentieth century as one of the last great poets of the Victorian era. In literary circles of the time, she was known for her distinctive masculine style of tailored suits, short cropped hair, habitual smoking and a preference for coarsely strong language.
She never explicitly referred to her queerness in her poetry, but many of her poems deal with unrequited love, often from a male perspective. Contemporary readers suspect this palpable heartache comes from her inability to fully realize her queer identity.
From “On the Road to the Sea”:
We passed each other, turned and stopped for half an hour, then went our way,
I who make other women smile did not make you--
But no man can move mountains in a day.
So this hard thing is yet to do.
But first I want your life:--before I die I want to see
The world that lies behind the strangeness of your eyes,
There is nothing gay or green there for my gathering, it may be,
Yet on brown fields there lies
A haunting purple bloom: is there not something in grey skies
And in grey sea?
I want what world there is behind your eyes,
I want your life and you will not give it me.
3. Frank O'Hara (1926-1966)
A prominent figure of the New York School (a group of artists in New York City inspired by abstract expressionism, jazz and surrealism), Frank O’Hara dazzled throughout the 50s and 60s with his wildly hilarious, urgent and personal poetry.
O’Hara identified openly as a gay man and kept a wide circle of friends and lovers, many of whom he expressively captured in his trademark confessional style.
From “Having a Coke with You”:
I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse
it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it
4. Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990)
Born and schooled in Cuba, the life of queer poet Reinaldo Arenas was a life marked by tragedy. In the 60s, as he served as editor and journalist for a slew of literary magazines in Havana, his openly gay lifestyle ran in direct opposition to the Communist regime of the country, resulting in his imprisonment in 1974 for “ideological deviation."
He was placed in the notorious El Morro Castle alongside violent rapists and murderers, where he managed to survive by helping inmates write love letters home.
Once he escaped to the United States in 1980, he wrote prolifically of his experiences in Cuba, producing poetry that was raw and largely autobiographical. Arenas contracted AIDS in 1987 and eventually committed suicide in 1990.
As long as the sky whirls
You will be my redemption and my doom,
magnetic vision,
lily in underwear,
salvation and madness
every night waiting.
As long as the sky whirls
no infernal could be a stranger
because I have to take care that that would not harm you,
No joy would go by inadvertent
Because in some way I have to reveal it to you,
As long as
the sky
whirls
you will be the truth of myself,
the song and the venom,
the danger and the ecstasies,
the vigil and the sleep,
the dread and the miracle.
As long as the sky whirls . . . but perhaps the sky whirls?
Well: as long as the sky exists.
5. Eileen Myles (b. 1949)
Moving from Boston to New York in 1974 to “be a poet,” Eileen Myles has since staked her claim as one of the most prolific and compelling poets writing today. Her verse, spanning over twenty volumes of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, is electric in its immediacy, and often focuses on her relationships with women.
Myles has been the recipient of countless awards and fellowships, notably the Lambda Book award (in 1995, 1998 and 2011), which honors and celebrates LGBTQ focused work and art.
From “Dear Andrea”:
I love you too
don’t f*ck up my hair
I can’t believe
you almost
fisted me
today.
That was great.
6. Richard Blanco (b. 1968)
Identifying openly not only as a gay man, but also as an immigrant and a Cuban-American, poet Richard Blanco’s work grapples with the tension that comes with assuming identities that often run in direct conflict with one another. His verse is straightforward and honest, relying on narrative over metaphor to comment on the complicated nature of identity politics.
It is perhaps because of this focus that Blanco was chosen to serve as the inaugural poet at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013. This made him the first latino, the first immigrant and the first openly gay person to ever do so.
From “Since Unfinished”:
I’ve been writing this since
the woman I slept with the night
of my father’s wake, since
my grandmother first called me
a faggot and I said nothing, since
I forgave her and my body
pressed hard against Michael
on the dance floor at Twist, since
the years spent with a martini
and men I knew I couldn’t love.
7. Trace Peterson
Trace Peterson, a poet and educator, is at the forefront of the charge to increase transgender representation and visibility in poetry. A transwoman herself, Peterson will be teaching the first ever course in transgender poetry this fall at Hunter College.
The course, not unlike Peterson’s own poetry, will aim to lift discussions of trans identity out of theory and metaphor and bring it down to the real lived experiences of trans identified writers and artists.
A reading of her poem "After Before and After":
8. Andrea Gibson (b. 1975)
Andrea Gibson, who also goes by Andrew, is an award-winning poet and activist whose work focuses on gender norms, LGBTQ issues and social reform, as well as the broader topics of love and identity.
They’ve gained notoriety over the last decade for their stirring spoken word performances, which bring to life the colorful imagery and exuberance of their poetry with an emboldening fearlessness. Their work has been recognized consistently at the National Poetry Slam and in the success of the chapbooks they’ve released with Write Bloody Publishing.
A performance of their poem, “Maybe I Need You”:
9. Danez Smith
With a slew of slam poetry competitions and writing fellowships under his belt, Danez Smith has established himself as an empowering voice for young queer black men. His poetry is intense, tackling issues of racial discrimination and homophobia with a poignancy that makes even his most desperate pleas ring with a resounding strength.
A performance of his poem, "Dear White America":
