While talking with Pam we stumbled upon the fact that she had (in her coffee-lacking morning stage, she assures me) grossly misinterpreted a portion of this piece. You may recall a recent piece that was a reply to T.S. Eliot. This, again, draws majorly from one of his pieces (although this time only stylistically). So Pam, seeing as you suggested it...

LINK: The Cavern

I had a member on another site summarise the entire poem's plot beautifully, and I am quite sure he will not mind if I quote him:

quote:

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This piece takes the reader through a journey with the consecutive innocence, confrontation, denouncement, inner reconciliation, and determination of the open homosexual's journey. The world is a confusing place in which to make moral judgements, as seen in your references to the East and the West. We begin in the East, where Mizi Xia once shared of his pantry and nature's leafy endorsement once grew from lovers' ruins [...]

Then, as suddenly and intrusively as the arrival of Commodore Perry comes the moral denunciations from the West. In this moral climate, a similar boy bites of the same peach (which, interestingly, is also symbolic of marriage in the Chinese tradition), but rejects its sweetness and calls it bitter for fear of impurity.

Now, the scene shifts to the skies, where an intangible Morality (which you term 'imaginary') looks down upon unsanctioned entanglement, and bars its fulfillment. Those who claim this Morality implore those who would ignore it to desist and cite their holy writ, in a manner that is "wrathful, loveless and untrue."

Then, you take us to a tender spot where a confused boy may reconcile and toss aside all of these conflicting influences, and simply feel. The influences of those who would condemn him fade, and he accepts himself and his volitions as tender love overcomes taboo and disproves contrivance.

Finally, we see the "man of glass" sitting as peacefully as his clear aura, basking in the sunlight of a power that condemns not his inborn feelings and at rest in this King's Garden of Paradise. He defies all exterior constructs of what he is, and is simply himself - pure and loving. His choices may bring him trouble, but their results - love - give him the strength to withstand the slings of the West.

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~With thanks to Grinchman

Further allusions were kneaded into it along the way, iconic pop songs (with a full stop at the beginning of the sentence signifying Western dogmatism), Asian legend (Peaches, Dragons and 'The Pillow Tree'), the concept of illumination as juxtaposed against transparency, imagined and unsubstantiated (although I am not suggesting unjustified) beliefs. Quotation from the homosexual French poet Jean Genet's Le Condamné à mort etc...

The style is drawn from the T.S. Eliot imagist masterpiece The Wasteland. It uses a serious of different voices throughout the stanzas and quotes certains texts out of their context to construct a coherent poem.

quote:

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"They're predators, I'll say that right now.
Were it my son I'd keep him away, and you mind my words, he'll be like them soon enough anyway."
.And him the son of a preacher!
"A victim! He's a victim of those sinful bastards! He'll teach his sin to the other boys!"

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This, for example, is a woman's voice, dogmatic and fearful, she firmly maintains two paranoid beliefs, that homosexuality is taught, and therefore contagious.

This is not a hypocritical gesture on my behalf, I understand that these are only my opinions on the subject, and respect any who hold opposing views. But I would motion those with religious reasons behind those views to re-read this and reflect - perhaps to no avail.

Thank you for your patience in this surface explication, feel free to go mad with allusion spotting or question regarding the text.

Peace, love and open doors,
Matt.

Thank you for posting, a most interesting read.
One thing, everybody, I'd appreciate it if all comments on this thread are directed to the poem
and not to the subject of homosexuality as a valid or evil lifestyle. OK?