The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry - Prologue. The Mirror to You and Me

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Introduction

Poetry is the greatest time machine the human race will ever construct. Language tamed to the intents of the heart elevate the words and music to a sum greater than its parts. We read, and we are the writer; we are in their head, and more importantly, we know their heat because we’ve felt the same way ourself.

The title of this anthology is derived from Ihara Saikaku’s 1687 collection of same-sex love stories “The Great Mirror of Manly Love” (Nanshoku Ohkagami). In it, that master poet, stage dramatist and short story writer held up a mirror to show “us” to ourselves, and that is the intent of my present work. I wish to show examples of prose pieces written by us, about us, and for us.* Obviously, we have always existed, and therefore loved and lived lives with our partners.

I find it amazing that even out and proud members of the LGBT+ diaspora are “surprised” to learn we did all right in the past, all by ourselves, despite self-pointed straight hate. The time and location made no difference in the lives of same-sex loving people, and we – least of all – should swallow the poison pill of Gay erasure so rampant today on the internet. No, do not be surprised by the content of this book: celebrate it!

As a project, there will be a separate edition exploring the us-by-us-for-us models in prose. For both volumes I had envisioned presenting the anthology entries sequentially, from earliest times to the present day, but now I realize that is not necessary. Since the messages are the same regardless of time, one can read and simply appreciate the material for its quality alone.

I hope you enjoy.

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* To a much smaller degree, examples from our straight(ish) allies are also represented, like Jeff Friedman's almost-unique poem ("Finding the Action") exploring the feelings he experienced knowing a buddy was in love with him and receiving oral sex from him anyhow.

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