Not a Camera

It's National Poetry Month! I am a big fan of National Poetry Month, but I know not everyone who follows me is. So, here's a general idea of the way I post during the period:

I tend to post 1-3 times a week over the course of the month. I usually have some commentary outside a cut and keep the poem under the cut. I post out-of-copyright poems publicly and more recent poetry behind an access lock on the grounds that poets who are still working should be able to control the online searchability of their own work. If I have not granted you access and you're interested in reading more poetry, let me know and I'll add you. (Honestly, the primary use of my access filter is things like this.)

Last year I posted only poems that were themselves transformative works; I've got one major instance of that that I'm planning on posting this year, but for the most part I think I'm going to be sticking to poetry by queer poets that reflects on the queer experience, because that's the headspace that I'm in right now. Also because last week feverbeats posted a request for more queer poetry and I have a mountain of it to share.

I have a few dedicated tags related to the subject: poetry is the obvious one. Because of last year, the bulk of my transformative works tag is poetry-related. I also have a few tags for entries related to some of my favorite poets: Anne Carson, Catullus, John M. Ford, W.H. Auden. Apparently I have NO OVID TAG. This is upsetting, and possibly needs to be rectified this month. I also have no AE Housman tag, which I choose to believe is a sign of increased emotional maturity since moving to Dreamwidth, but which will almost certainly be changed this month if I'm really going to stick with the queer poets. (I promise though, there will be NO "Diffugere Nives", because I don't need it as an emotional crutch any more! *uses Housman icon to spite self*)

Ok, all that taken care of: a few nights ago I chanced upon an incredibly delightful Auden poem which is, you know, pretty good out of context, but is deliciously catty given the appropriate context. Especially given the attention given to the Isherwood/Auden relationship in the recent Christopher and His Kind biopic, now seems like the perfect time to pimp this historical relationship to you, o flist.

So first, I'm including a ton of context from assorted Isherwood autobiographies ( below the cut )

( I Am Not a Camera )

Notes from the bottom of the Geek Hierarchy

Preliminary WisCon panel assignments are out! Right now, it looks like I'm on two panels, one of which is:

Your Fandom is OK!
It's important to remember that just because you don't like a particular fandom, you don't have the right to put down those who do. (We're looking at you, Twilight haters!) Everyone's fandom is OK! In this panel, we'll discuss why this is true, and what we can do to encourage better understanding among all members of fandom.

When I saw the assignment, I first cracked up and thought of my "shame: lack thereof" tag. And then I thought "Oh no, am I going to have to come out as being in *bandom*?! At WISCON?!?" and worried that I was almost certainly going to be the person on the panel who was lowest on the Geek Hierarchy.

And then I wondered if there's an equivalent of Impostor Syndrome that is Low on the Geek Hierarchy Syndrome, which convinces us all that our interests are too geeky to share, that our level of enthusiasm is just a bit *too* embarrassing, even more than other people's, that sharing all our interests would just open a doorway into our soul that would let everyone point and laugh at us. And lo and behold, now I know what I'm going to talk about on the panel come May.

And then I went back to re-reading the Panic! at the Disco 1890s Nevada forced marriage AU the end.