sex without love

Carrie
By Carrie

sex without love

(poem by Sharon Olds)

 

How do they
do it, the ones who make love
without love? Beautiful as
dancers,
gliding over each other like ice-skaters
over the ice,
fingers hooked
inside each other's bodies, faces
red as steak,
wine, wet as the
children at birth whose mothers are going to
give
them away. How do they come to the
come to the come to the God
come to the
still waters, and not love
the one who came there
with them, light
rising slowly as steam off their joined
skin?
These are the true religious,
the purists, the pros, the ones who
will not
accept a false Messiah, love the
priest instead of the
God. They do not
mistake the lover for their own pleasure,
they
are like great runners: they know they are alone
with the road
surface, the cold, the wind,
the fit of their shoes, their
over-all cardio-
vascular health--just factors, like the
partner
in the bed, and not the truth, which is the
single body
alone in the universe
against its own best time.

 

*Sharon Olds is an American poet recipient of many awards including the San Francisco Poetry Center Award, the Lamont Poetry Prize, The National Books Critics Circle Award, and the T. S. Eliot Prize. She currently teaches creative writing at New York University.

 

*POTLUCK POETRY NIGHT IN DOHA ..

location: COSTA COFEE at the center

date: MAy 8

time: 7:30 p.m

 

By Oryx• 7 May 2008 14:25
Oryx

Yes I just put the ironing pile in the washing machine every so often ...

when it gets dusty!

By Oryx• 7 May 2008 14:17
Oryx

That is what a public forum is about - expressing your opinon...and I expressed mine!

 

Your opinion is interesting and I have wondered about that myself but I studied Lit and Art at Uni and so was encourage to look at critique/appreciate.....

 

at the end of the day I want to feel its ok to voice my opinion and listen to others... then maybe we will see things from a different perspective.

 

Alexa - i lock my ironing in seperate room.

 

By jinkz• 7 May 2008 14:05
jinkz

 I'm not being hostile...you can't really tell the expression through reading, can you? Like everyone else, i'm just here sharing what I think, whether or not it's valid, i don't really care.

 

“They say you can't live without love. Tell them oxygen is more important!.”

- G. House 

By jinkz• 7 May 2008 13:49
Rating: 4/5
jinkz

 good for you (hands up)

 

“They say you can't live without love. Tell them oxygen is more important!.”

- G. House 

By jinkz• 7 May 2008 13:48
Rating: 4/5
jinkz

either you can keep it to yourself or if you want to share it, you can only do so with someone whose got the same appreciation as yours.

but like i said you can say the art is ugly but justify why...then again if you don't appreciate art and you say something about it...I don't think what you say counts.

 

“They say you can't live without love. Tell them oxygen is more important!.”

- G. House 

By anonymous• 7 May 2008 13:44
anonymous

 

I just wonder howthat topic and those words came into here mind it is a little like a modern day MacBeth, and we know that the poets of yonder days were aften blind drunk when they wrote something such as "a mid-summer nights dreas" so I do wonder. I personally do prefer the sonnets of Omar Khyam!!!!!!!

 

jinkz

 

To be honest what is there to appreciate there and what does it have to do with poetry. Personally, I fail to understand why anyone writing such stuff receives a prize of any sort!!

By jinkz• 7 May 2008 13:44
Rating: 3/5
jinkz

 I think if you're not an artist and you don't appreciate art, then yeah you can't just judge.

I think that's a no brainer. no offense though

 

“They say you can't live without love. Tell them oxygen is more important!.”

- G. House 

By someonenew• 7 May 2008 13:42
someonenew

I feel that in general the arty types are a li'll wierd... 

 

I dream of a better tomorrow where Chickens can cross the Road without having their motives questioned - Unknown

By jinkz• 7 May 2008 13:37
Rating: 2/5
jinkz

Yup...just a passerby

 

“They say you can't live without love. Tell them oxygen is more important!.”

- G. House 

By jinkz• 7 May 2008 13:31
Rating: 4/5
jinkz

 ...Soooooo, if you think you're neither of both, you don't have the right to judge the poet nor the piece.

However, if you think you are being sensible with your comments, give some justification on why it sucks.

 

I'm not directing to anyone in specific btw...just passing by. 

 “They say you can't live without love. Tell them oxygen is more important!.”

- G. House 

By Oryx• 7 May 2008 13:30
Oryx

Thanks Alexa

So if I say I don't like a poem I am being in a 'clique'?

 

No - I think the poem is rubbish... it was posted on a public forum and that is my opinion!

 

phewwwwwwwwww what a lot of cement it will take to fill in the chip on the shoulder. And R&R is right... ingored due to fear.

By Gypsy• 7 May 2008 10:09
Rating: 3/5
Gypsy

 Hmm, personally I think if a poem like this is winning awards it's a sign there aren't very many good poets left.  Sad.    In my opinion the metaphor and subject matter are simply too obvious, it's a poem a distraught 14 year old girl would write. 

 

Visit www.qatarhappening.com

By Vasquez• 7 May 2008 09:19
Vasquez

Hmmm I think it's a beautiful poem - but maybe I'm just a romantic tool. I like the way the author describes the pure physical act and colurs.

- I took the blue pill and found myself alive in Qatar - wish I had taken the red and stayed in Europe

By Ragnarock Raider• 7 May 2008 08:19
Ragnarock Raider

Its not about a clique...its about being on the boards long enough for people to get to know you (as much as that's possible in a public forum)....and if in the course of getting the 100 user points (or whatever the requirement is) you make statements like how much you would enjoy stoning someone to death or whatever....then don't be surprised if your requests to join are ignored because people might think you're a psychopath lol

 

Stay safe all.

 

Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?

By manditojr• 7 May 2008 07:54
manditojr

totally agree with you super...

By pinkaboo• 7 May 2008 02:37
pinkaboo

whats QLSG? and do people get cliquey here? i am new here in QL...is this site a high society thing?

By Carrie• 5 May 2008 21:18
Carrie

HAHAHA...you are funny! Here you are preaching to me that you have every right to comment negatively on something i posted and yet you are doing the same to me!

I have nothing against people saying anything against something i have posted. If you were to read above posts I just think some people are annoying for just saying they hate poetry period..or "this sucks" without giving a proper reason.

I also don't get why you have to insult me outright and make it personal. So you think "I" need literature classes huh? Well, I think you're mean and you have given me all the more reason not to be active in QL anymore.

Thank you for that, at least.

By motors071907• 5 May 2008 17:28
motors071907

This is a platonic relationship... they just enjoy each others company. No more no less beyond that. 

By anonymous• 5 May 2008 17:08
Rating: 4/5
anonymous

Hi Carrie some poetry....that you can call poetry, about the subject.

Hope you appreciate...

 

You'd Stick the World into Your Bedside Lane

You'd stick the world into your bedside lane.

It's boredom makes you callous to all pain.

To exercise your teeth for this strange task,

A heart upon a rake, each day, you'd ask.

Your eyes lit up like shopfronts, or the trees

With lanterns on the night of public sprees,

Make insolent misuse of borrowed power

And scorn the law of beauty that's their dower.

Oh deaf-and-dumb machine, harm-breeding fool

World sucking leech, yet salutary tool!

Have you not seen your beauties blanch to pass

Before their own reflection in the glass?

Before this pain, in which you think you're wise,

Does not its greatness shock you with surprise,

To think that Nature, deep in projects hidden,

Has chosen you, vile creature of the midden,

To knead a genius for succeeding time.

O sordid grandeur! Infamy sublime!

 

— Charles Baudelaire

By Rizks• 5 May 2008 13:14
Rizks

 

 

I had Roller Coaster Experience ........

By britexpat• 5 May 2008 13:12
britexpat

I love the imagery - "Beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice-skaters over the ice..".

I wonder how many of us can do all she describes and more.

By brandylady• 5 May 2008 13:05
brandylady

Sorry, i am with supernurse that poem was gross! too graphic, thought poetry was meaningful not full of ??

By Ragnarock Raider• 5 May 2008 13:00
Ragnarock Raider

There are so many different kinds and types of poetry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry.

 

Having said that, I didn't like the poem too much Carrie (sowwy)...its subject matter was interesting but its way too visual in an ineloquent way....it also felt forced...not my cup of tea....but to each his own.

 

Supernurse is into lymericks I believe...those Do rhyme and are usually quite vulgar (they cater to a different audience altogether)...and I have been know to indulge in one or two from time to time LOL.

 

As for which poems I DO like....how about Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven? and many more (too many to list).

 

Stay safe all.

 

Perfection does not exist. The question therefore, is: what level of imperfection are we willing to settle for?

By Oryx• 5 May 2008 12:48
Oryx

The poem is rubbish.

I can understand and write 'proper' English and Spanish...

maybe we are not ALL wrong - maybe you need some good literature classes.

 

We can comment on what we like it is a public forum...!

so you who advocates poetry is trying to censor us.... irony there!

By Rizks• 5 May 2008 12:40
Rizks

 

 

Is this something related to SHARON STONE ??

By chunk03• 5 May 2008 12:37
chunk03

                Ive just spent the last 5 minutes reading all the replys, and still havnt a clue what the poem was about, or where it is leading to, thought there was going to be a JUICY ending.......just off ta watch some paint dry!!!!!!!

By Carrie• 5 May 2008 12:05
Carrie

but really..i'm so dissapointed in QL. most of the replies tend to be either sarcastic, nonsense or insulting. Hello?! to those who don't get it or can't understand or write in proper english...don't comment on the post!

By sylwiastep• 4 May 2008 22:54
sylwiastep

And I thought I'll read something really interesting about having sex without love... :/ 

Sylwia

 

[img_assist|nid=78473|title=|desc=|link=none|align=center|width=220|height=146]

By anonymous• 4 May 2008 22:50
anonymous

Did you use a online translator?

Jezz...really sad

 

Check mate.....

By Carrie• 4 May 2008 22:28
Carrie

i never liked hip hop until i saw how it has influenced slam poetry into becoming a genre that has helped bring poetry more out into the open..and yes..people stereotype hip hop alot..but there is really alot of rage and passion in it...

By K2Q• 2 May 2008 15:10
K2Q

Supernurse.....

there once was a man that lived in a shoe, he had so many wives he didn't know what to do.....can't remember the rest...

That definately doesn't sound like a poem..... more like a nursery ryme.....

hehehe...

By paul• 2 May 2008 13:48
paul

meaningful poem

By Gumby• 2 May 2008 13:38
Gumby

Hmmm, why is it horrible, due to the lack of traditional ryhme or because of the subject matter?

By mios23• 1 May 2008 21:34
mios23

seems like some people have nothing to do and they are ready to talk about really.....lets say ...helpless thi,gs to gain some points

 

 

By anonymous• 1 May 2008 21:24
anonymous

Hip Hop must be full of the best poets around!ie

I'm Rob Base n I came to get down

I'm not internationally known

But I'm known to rock a microphone

I get stupid, I mean outrageous, stay away from me cos I'm contagious la de la de la

See? Classic Poetry!

By anonymous• 1 May 2008 21:19
anonymous

It is good that such issues are brought to the front to be discussed and disected.  If more "shababs" became engaged in this type of conversation, women (like dw) wouldn't be started at on the DOha streets.  Women would be treated as just as another gender...like another flavour of ice cream...not to be put on a pedastil.

By anonymous• 1 May 2008 21:17
anonymous

I have the eyes and one ear but....nope...no brain there..that explains all!

By anonymous• 1 May 2008 21:10
anonymous

there once was a man that lived in a shoe, he had so many wives he didn't know what to do.....can't remember the rest...

By anonymous• 1 May 2008 21:05
anonymous

not sure I know of any poems I like, been a long time since I was at school!

By Oryx• 1 May 2008 20:58
Oryx

Wilfred Owen

Sefreig Sasoon 

Seamus O'Heany

 

That poem is just dire. Supernurse the poet will be dead now if she didn't have a day job! LOL

By Carrie• 1 May 2008 20:36
Carrie

I find it interesting that you all find this appalling. I challenge those who said YUCK and cursed under their breath. Show me a poem you Do like... ;)

By lazydude• 1 May 2008 20:22
lazydude

no point even commenting on it !!!

By anonymous• 1 May 2008 20:09
anonymous

someone needs to tell Sharon Olds to get a fecking day job!

By shinning_star• 1 May 2008 20:07
Rating: 2/5
shinning_star

this no where looks like a poem.....

its pethetic.....

nothing is related to each other never seen a poem like this.....

i agree with u alexa its strange

 

 

 

Life is a mystery..... you never know whats next.....

By anonymous• 1 May 2008 20:01
anonymous

is this about lesbians by any chance??

By anonymous• 1 May 2008 19:54
Rating: 5/5
anonymous

fingers hooked

inside each other's bodies, faces

red as steak,

wine, wet as the

children at birth whose mothers are going to

give

them away. How do they come to the

come to the come to the God

come to the

still waters,

 

Yukkk!!Wtf?

By blacklady• 1 May 2008 19:42
blacklady

then it is simply a desire or what we call as lust....

[img_assist|nid=90050|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=180|height=161]

By anonymous• 1 May 2008 19:38
anonymous

What an awful poem!

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