BDSM poetry

[KillerMuffin]

This isn't a pretty opinion so if you're inclined to feel personally insulted by such things, you may want to just put me on ignore right now and save yourself a lot of aggravation.


I've been reading poetry here for a while now. I've learned a lot (not nearly enough) about poetry in the years that the poets have been thankfully running amok in these parts. Being a sex site as it is, there's going to be BDSM stuff here, specially in the poetry section. The D/s relationship just lends itself to poetry.

I've been, I hate to say this cause it's mean, rather disappointed by most of it. It's, well, shallow, flat, and redundant. The depth of emotion is just an outpouring of flat desire or want with no substance behind it.

Here is an example of a beautiful, subtle, and very fulfilling BDSM poem, to pick on WE:

_________________________________________

glass box
by WickedEve ©

repeated images on the walls,
sweep over the floor
and splash the ceiling.

thrust and slide once.
a hundred times over and over,
each square holds the same scene.

i reflect on what i see,
rough behind the smooth.

so many hands grab my hair.
each head yanked back,
and fingered clones smack!
i see the effect echo all around me.

above me, below me,
i'm a blue movie of the moment
recorded on shiny surfaces
and in minds.
_________________________________________

Taking from my shining example, I can actually see into the BDSM mind. Not the heavy, hardcore with this one, but the parts of it. Each head yanked back, all the fingered clones smack! gives this poem a definitive feeling that I can get in touch with. This gives me a part of the life and opens me up to the poet.

I'm not giving any examples of what I consider less than good BDSM poetry, you'll have to do that yourself. There's gajillions of Ode to Master poems scattered all over the web. It's usually the same variation on the same theme. I need you, please, take me, make me yours, I worship you. You get the point.

It gets one to thinking. There is no denying the raw outpouring of need/desire in the Ode to Master poetry. It's very strong and very immediate. But it's also very off-putting. It's like open a blast furnace. You feel the heat and you can see the heat, but you can't see the fire. You can't see what makes the fire burn. The heat is then, for all of its ferocity and power, insubstantial. The frailties of being human, the vulnerability of being part of a relationship, and the weaknesses in all of us are missing. Oh, there's an assumed one, the vulnerable submissive on the altar to his or her Master, but that's not the vulnerability that takes a poem to the next level.

One of my major criteria for a 'great' poem is the touch of being human in it. The emotional frailities that all of us share and try to overcome or hide or simply never see. Some Odes to Master have the fear of being sub or the fear of trusting in them. This is better, but it's still missing because there's not frailty involved in telling one's Master that one is afraid to trust or be a sub. The frailty comes with the emotional connectivity that one establishes with one's non-Master reader (the rest of the entire world).

This one is one of my favorite BDSM poems because it does bring out the frailty. Lips quiver, then bitten, as if to hold back is the obvious one, but there are a few other tidbits of what makes us human in there, hidden in the action.

_________________________________________

A Bind of Black Silk
by WriterDom ©

A bind of black silk
across closed eyes

speaking softly
as if to reassure
I touch your hand
bring it's satiny touch
to lips and kiss
you smell of all things wonderful

I see lips quiver
then bitten
as if to hold back
thoughts I cannot read

hands open your gown
warm like the fire
against smallness of waist
unfamiliar, yet just as you dreamed
on those nights when
unfulfilled desires kept you awake
when the world was still

my breath quickens at your beauty
as gown gives way
falling
silently to the floor

too long to wait
moons went to sliver
to full, to new, to just a smile
too many times
as I wondered if the winds of fortune
would bring us together
only fitting she is in orange glory
on this fated night

"Down my fair princess,"
Strong hands on shoulders
push you to your knees
fingers tangle in your hair
my sword drawn
its heat against your lips
parting them, invading a void
turning fantasy into truth
turning a princess into a willing slave

_________________________________________


Well. I'm going to go eat a quesadilla.

 

[_Land]

Shhhhhhh~

Untitled

I need scorn
I am unworthy
I fail you

Punish me,
Deserving
Strike me

Stinging Flesh
Burning eyes
Yielding spirit

Lost will,
Submitting
To shame

Softly touch
Tender welts
Feeling love


emptiness fills

 

[karmadog]

Freakin' double posts. Grrr.

 

[karmadog]

I don't think there is any point to singling out BDSM poetry. Look at the 'I Love You' or the 'You're My Angel' poems.

That's why poets, indeed all writers, must read. At the very least, a writer should know when they are boring and derivative.

I started a thread a while ago, thinking that many other people were in the same boat that I was, that is, that they hadn't read much poetry since high school and probably not much then. I surfed the web looking for poetry that struck me as interesting, then I posted a link to it.

I quit doing it because the only one's reading it were people who already knew what they were doing, or at least they were already readers of poetry.

There is an amazing wealth of writing on the web, available for free, and at your fingertips. Why do so few read it?

Too many people put out some crap and expect others to be amazed at their uniqueness and sensitivity without yet trying to find the individuality of others. It is not possible for the self-involved to become an interesting writer because for a writer to be interesting, he must first be interested in others.

 

[Rybka]

I don't think there is any point to singling out BDSM poetry. Look at the 'I Love You' or the 'You're My Angel' poems.

I think the worst are the "Why did you leave me?" poems. Some people make a career out of writing the same drivel! (Not that I haven't done one or two myself.)

But enough is enough! - Sure it hasn't happened to anyone else as bad as it happened to you. (After all, no one else has ever loved as you did! Right?) - But if you have to write about it, please find some new metaphors and phrases. - It has been so over done, like calling breasts "pertky" or "pert". If you have to do it, please find some fresh words. My keyboard will jam if I puke on it again!

Regards while I look for some Tums, Rybka

 

[WickedEve]

KM, I wrote that one for the Big M. The original version was:
Bite my tit
Make me submit
Whip my clit

See what a little polish can do for a poem.

 

[_Land]

KM, I wrote that one for the Big M. The original version was:
Bite my tit
Make me submit
Whip my clit

See what a little polish can do for a poem.

I'd call that a spit shine, a mighty fine one too
speaking of....................

 

[beths-virtue]

I must admit , the voyuer in me , reads all poetry, yes , some of it trite, and some overdone..

but .. i wonder oftentimes, is , no matter wether it's BDSM," he left me". "my angel" "lover scorned" type poems, if we all as poetry readers become a bit more, well to be honest jaded ourselves,
simply because of the massive volume of poetry available,

yes , on the web by clicking a button...

i mean, to be honest, type in poetry into google, and see the gazillions of sites that it comes back with .. and assuming, ahhh, say it comes back with 100,000 sites, and each site hosts, oh say ,,,, 5000 poems..... thats 5,000,000 works.... theres bound to be reptition...
earlier poets had it easier some times i feel, they were held up to the light less, because they had no such huge past works of poetry to be compared to... lets face it, there was homer and sappho.. but , what other thousands of poems were written at the same time ?
how many survived..

and in a few years, will all our poems survive? , no, they wont, theyll fade, to the back pages of literoticas un read threads, and then , gone , off the net, poof...


i think in a poets quest for uniqueness, we tend to ignore the commonality of the "human condition"

why cant i write ,
oh how i love thee , let me count the ways.... and use it in a poem , in my own personal idiom( T.Y .monty python) and not be criticized for using words, or phrases that have been used before...

obviuosly if i use words there are only just so many of them
and i can say love or passion or lust or adoration.... and they all mean the similar thing, and they all have been used in other poems....
so am i not creative, simply by putting them in my poem ?????


my rant is done~@~

 

[WickedEve]

beths

You can use love, lust, adoration, passion. But at least, make the poem your own. When the reader is finished, let him see why it's a beths-virtue poem and not another cookie-cutter poem.

I understand there being only so many words, and so many ways to use them. I don't think using passion, for example, is a bad thing. I simply want to read a poem that shows me the poet's unique perception of passion. Even if the poet's experience that he's writing about isn't all that unique, I think a good poet can get the same tired ideas across in his own way that let's us see love, lust, adoration, and passion in a newer light.

So many poems are very much alike not just because they use the same words, but they use them in the same way. They give us a grocery list of the ingredients of passion, lust, etc. They don't cook it up and serve it hot the way a good poem does.

 

[karmadog]

earlier poets had it easier some times i feel, they were held up to the light less, because they had no such huge past works of poetry to be compared to... lets face it, there was homer and sappho.. but , what other thousands of poems were written at the same time ?
how many survived..

beth, I know you're ranting and don't really believe that. Because, as you know, Sappho and Homer lived in societies in which poetry was the equivalent of television. And who even remembers what TV show was up against 'All in the Family'? The strong survived and the trite just died.

My belief is that people are unique, but most don't know in what way they are. The writer's job is to find out how not only he or she is unique, but how other people are unique, then to express both individualities. Poets are less likely to use characters in their work (being, by and large, self-involved egoists), so poetry is much easier. (kidding of course)

What I'm really saying is that each of us must learn what makes us different and understand how we're the same or we'll never write anything worth reading and remembering.

 

[WriterDom]

I have a friend who isn't that crazy about my non bdsm poetry, but likes the bdsm. Not because she's a sub, she is, but she was also an English major and feels that everything else has been done before.

And yeah, there is some not so good bdsm poetry here, but I think many are just beginning to write poetry and enjoy posting it.

 

[JUDO]

i mean, to be honest, type in poetry into google, and see the gazillions of sites that it comes back with .. and assuming, ahhh, say it comes back with 100,000 sites, and each site hosts, oh say ,,,, 5000 poems..... thats 5,000,000 works.... theres bound to be reptition...

Unbelievably, that would actually be half-a-billion (500,000,000) poems.

 

[Angeline]

Why do you write?

I'm writing my poems for an audience of one--me. I'm writing because I'm compelled to write, because I have something to say. I want desparately for there to be some commercial value to my work, but only because that would give me more time to write my stuff as opposed to educational psychobabble, which is what I'm currently paid to produce.

Yes, I'm probably repeating what some other poet--obscure or not--said whenever. Ideas aren't new: even the ones put together most uniquely have likely been thought up by someone, somewhere, sometime.....

But really I don't care because I'm doing what I need to do--expressing and communicating. That doesn't mean I don't have standards for the quality of what I write; I like to think I have fairly high standards and I try to keep them up there not only by writing, but by reading poets from whom I think i can learn. For me though, the bottom line never changes; it's about being compelled to play with language to express.

 

[RisiaSkye]

Re: Why do you write?

I'm writing my poems for an audience of one--me. I'm writing because I'm compelled to write, because I have something to say. I want desparately for there to be some commercial value to my work, but only because that would give me more time to write my stuff as opposed to educational psychobabble, which is what I'm currently paid to produce.

Amen to that...all of it.

[rant]
At the same time, there's a big difference between what I see as the two types of writers/poets who claim to write just for themselves. On one hand you have people who'd be writing whether or not anyone ever read it, because that's who they are--spending time working on craft, studying words and writings, in love with language and poetic form. And on the other hand, there are those whose desire to "be a poet" eclipses their ability to express themselves, who rely on cliched phrasings of the kind of trite sentimentality found in Hallmark cards. (I consider myself both of these types, depending on the day, in case you wonder.)

What I always want to say to that latter category is this:
By all means, write because it's in you to do it. Write for yourself first and last. Write even if nobody likes or understands your work, if the writing brings you joy--or the lack of writing causes you pain. But, don't allow yourself the luxury of using "I write for myself" as a smokescreen to hide behind any time you face criticism. The fact that people are taking the time to read it at all, much less to offer you honest feedback, is more payment than many great artists ever receive.

Even Shakespeare had a first draft.

[/rant]

 

[JUDO]

Re: Re: Why do you write?

Like RS and Angie above, I write what pleases me -- the subject is usually taken from inspiration which is sometimes suggested by others, or inspired by others, but the words, form, images, messages -- all the rest are written as my way of conveying what is in my head and heart to others' heads and hearts.

It's never perfect. What I write down almost never captures what is inside of me exactly. Sometimes, I do this on purpose to bring others into the realm of where I'm feeling or thinking or viewing, then let them look for themselves, and othertimes, I just don't have the abilities to bring them there.

And that's why I'm here, writing (and enjoying reading my dictionaries)... To try to clear the pipeline from myself to others.


- Judo

 

[Unmasked Poet]

Never to late

The only thing worse than BDSM poetry is Erotic poetry. Nothing is as prone to sappy cliche ridden angst and whines. Of course there are good examples of both good poetry in the genre and poor here at Lit. In abundunce I might add.

But I'm with KM overall. Usually the activity described in the poem is only the first bit of pain inflicted or senses dominated. Reading some of this stuff has often left me feeling battered and cuffed.

U.P.

 

[Savage Kitten]

The only thing worse than BDSM poetry is Erotic poetry. U.P.

oh.... what to say? what to say?? ~bite your tongue kitty kat~ oh well... i have no restraint! i'm gonna say this, even tho i know "unmasked poet" is someone that has been around a lot longer than the user name itself.

how can you call yourself a poet, or even post in the poetry forum, and be so biased? poets are multi-faceted. opened to new ideas and personalities. critique the form, the style, rhythm, the pattern but do not call yourself a poet and critique with a closed mind.

now.... after coming in at the end of a discussion... and saying that (so crassly?)...

I miss writing *sighs*

I miss clearing my mind of the mumbo jumbo. I miss growing, expanding, exploring with words. Thats why I wrote.

 

[Unmasked Poet]

LOL

Good to see you also SK,

I love poetry you know that. But good poetry is difficult to write. Choosing the topic of BDSM or Eroticism makes the task more difficult. That does not mean it should not be written or enjoyed by the writers or the readers at all levels. But if it is bad. It is bad.

You should write, and express yourself.

I do not call myself a poet, I only express my opinions on poetry.

We have missed you, I hope you decide to write again.

Darn fiesty poets! What the hell SK, Kat, Daughter whats going on? It seems the chickens have come home to roost.

U.P.

 

[HomerPindar]

I must admit , the voyuer in me , reads all poetry, yes , some of it trite, and some overdone..
i mean, to be honest, type in poetry into google, and see the gazillions of sites that it comes back with .. and assuming, ahhh, say it comes back with 100,000 sites, and each site hosts, oh say ,,,, 5000 poems..... thats 5,000,000 works.... theres bound to be reptition...
earlier poets had it easier some times i feel, they were held up to the light less, because they had no such huge past works of poetry to be compared to... lets face it, there was homer and sappho.. but , what other thousands of poems were written at the same time ?
how many survived..

Chuckle, Pindar survived. If my memory serves me, very little of his work is known, but he's an influence to Homer. That, somewhat small and trival point aside...

HomerPindar

 

[Guest]

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