Poetry feels like sex above the body. Where erotic scenes in other literary genres are often structured linearly, poems are not restrained by boundaries of space, time or grammar. Much like a caress, which can be experienced as being outside of time, poetry does not have to make immediate sense; it only needs to be felt. Each poetic element has erotic possibilities: the fluid movement from one perspective to the next; the details and perceptions that make up a poem or a sensual experience. Desire can course through the veins of a poem and be felt by the reader without ever having to be explicitly mentioned. The syntax of poetry, too, adds to the feeling of desire built into a poem. Poet Carl Phillips describes his relationship with syntax as erotic: ‘there’s so much stall-and-deliver, release-and-restraint, or at least that’s the kind of syntax to which I’ve always been drawn.’
I asked friends with a penchant for the poetic to help supply the reading list below. Fuelled by the imaginative power of poetry, these ten poetry collections capture desire and eroticism in a vivid and poignant way. The majority of these books are recent; erotica as a theme has grown much more blatant in later works as a veil of shame has been lifted and the exploration of desire in poetry has been wildly encouraged.
THE UNDRESSING 1
Described as a ‘slow tango of sex and Zen,’ these intimate, lyrical poems invite you into detailed, sensual scenes that feel almost private, like walking into a room at a party where two lovers have sought their sanctuary. In these unhurried, detailed poems, the passion shared between the characters is likened to building new civilisations together. In the first line, the protagonist’s lover starts telling him what she wants: ‘Listen, she says.’ The desire spills from the pages of this lush collection, and the lovers’ encounters linger in the mind long after closing the
book.
MERCURY 2
This book, written by poet and visionary Ariana Reines, is shimmering somewhere on the astral plane: not just the poems, but the glinting silver cover, too, are a shiny mirror in which you can perhaps recognise yourself. At times her work is riddled with arcane symbols, other times it is explicit and raw. Reading this poetry is as much a physical experience as it is a mystical one. The connections she makes are funny and profound, or, in the words of the author: ‘Everything stays alone with itself if I don’t write it.’
LOVE POEMS 3
When I asked fellow internet friend and poet Yentl van Stokkum about her favourite erotic poetry, she whispered in my ear: Anne Sexton. The classic collection tells an uncomfortable yet compelling story, powerfully describing the complex emotions and desires that play into adultery, written during a time when these poems came as a shock to some and a revelation to others. It’s thrilling to read about the addictive feeling of keeping a secret, crossing a moral boundary, going somewhere, and knowing there’s no turning back.
SIN 4
‘I sinned a sin full of pleasure.’ The work of Forugh Farrokhzad, brought to English readers by gifted translator Sholeh Wolpé, brims with life and delectation, exploring feminine desire, pain and radical change. The historical and social context in which she wrote these poems – 1950s Iran – makes the strong feminine perspective of her work even more remarkable. It is almost like she cannot help herself: ‘o God, who knows what I did / in that quiet and dark seclusion.’
WHAT YOU PRAY TOWARD 5
This is not a collection of poems, but rather a single, magnificent poem by Patricia Smith about the orgasm, recommended by British poet Vanessa Kisuule. She mentioned it when we spoke about the female gaze in art and about being, well, horny women. This poem is amazing and hilarious, in the way that sex, too, can be amazing and hilarious. In a series of rapid-fire descriptions of sounds, sensations and reveries, Smith races towards a divine climax while stopping to ask: ‘does the cunt go to heaven first?’
IF NOT, WINTER 6
Few things can make a poem more intriguing than an infusion of the ancient mystery of Sappho. Ellipses and brackets indicate that much has been left out; words that will never be uncovered, but that are nonetheless felt throughout these short, astonishing poems, sometimes no shorter than a line, such as this gem: ‘I long and seek after.’ The poems are beautifully translated by resident classics queen Anne Carson, whose translations and retellings of the Greek classics sing with deep emotion.
NIGHT SKY WITH EXIT WOUNDS 7
Few young poets are able to stimulate your sensual imagination quite like Ocean Vuong. When we spoke of the intimacy and eroticism of poetry, my dear friend and writer Yasmin Veenman wholeheartedly described this book as ‘not classically erotic, but rather rough and cynical.’ These poems are full of painful hours spent waiting for fleeting moments with a lover who might not come back again, a man with a tongue like ‘a lit match.’
BONFIRE OPERA 8
Have you ever experienced how insignificant details are transformed into moments of sensual urban connectedness? Like the gas station attendant who tells Laméris’ mother, ‘you’re beautiful, sister, eat more fruit,’ every time she comes in. There is a craving for ecstasy in these poems that is sometimes met and sometimes left unfulfilled. This feeling is summed up sensually in the amazing title poem: ‘I wanted to be that free inside the body.’
O AMOR NATURAL 9
Poet Radna Fabias, who I don’t think has ever recommended to me anything I didn’t immediately love, recalls this sensual collection by Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade, which includes the famous poem ‘The Floor is Bed.’ ‘Even more than the collection,’ Radna says, ‘I loved the documentary by Heddy Honigmann (from 1996).’ For this project, the filmmaker asked Brazilian people to read cheeky, erotic poems from the book. Where Honigmann expected awkward reactions, she received elation, recognition. Radna still thinks about those elderly Brazilians sometimes.
SUN 10
An honorary mention for the only Dutch book on this list, partially translated into English by David Colmer. Both Yentl and Yasmin immediately mentioned this collection when pondering which poems truly speak to the body and the erotic mind. I feel the same: Peter Verhelst’s Zon (Sun) makes me blush. The poems explore the seaside and the body of the protagonist’s lover with an intensely intimate gaze. Not only the poems draw you in: if you stare at the hazy, yellow sun on the cover for too long, you can almost feel it starting to pulse, like the poems inside are pulsing with the instructions of desire. To quote Verhelst: ‘come.’