Celebrating National Poetry Month: Jan Steckel's new book of poetry

Jan Steckel has a new book of poetry out, The Horizontal Poet. Published by Zeitgeist Press and nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, Jan says "It has poems in it about loving women and about loving men." My thanks to Jan for letting me share this poem from the book with you!

Pretending

My step-grandfather’s grandson
danced with my cousin at a Bar Mitzvah.
He held her too close and murmured
“We’re not really cousins, not by blood.”
“Let’s pretend we are,” she said,
inserting her elbow between them.

I’d been working for gay rights for years
before I worked up the nerve
to ask my grandmother to take me to the Castro.

“Where are you going?”
my step-grandfather called from the recliner.
“To Castro Street, dear.”
“What do you want to go THERE for?”
“To see fairies, dear,” trilled my grandmother,
and skipped out the door.

Her feet were so long,
she had to descend the basement stairs sideways.
Her shoulders were wide, her hips narrow.
She could pitch a baseball like a man,
had taught my father how to throw.

Her Mercedes launched like a torpedo
from the underground garage.

When we reached the Castro,
manly beauty sizzled. We held hands
to protect ourselves from glorious torsos,
spreading of feathers, the sheer display
of pierced and tattooed flesh
preening that day on the summer street.

I wondered if we looked like lesbians:
a baby dyke and her still-beautiful sugar-mama.

I pretended we were.

"Pretending" first appeared in Lavender Review.

Celebrate National Poetry Month with GLBTQ Poetry: Jan Steckel's INTERSECTION

It's April, and once again that means celebrating GLBTQ poetry - though this month I'll just be popping them in throughout the month rather than doing a solid week. Today's celebration contribution is by Jan Steckel:

Intersection

When I help a woman on with her jacket,
my sexuality grabs my gender identity
and waltzes it around the room.

I’m a woman, but there’s a man in me.
He’s a bit of a fop, sort of a pansy.
He might be a fag.

Why shouldn’t everything about me be fluid?
I’m a squishy skin-bag of water and salt,
ocean inside and out.

As a child, I was sure I was a boy.
The heroes of all the best books were boys.
I pretty much lived in my head, what I read.

Now I feel more like a woman –
except around straight women.
Then I feel like a butch lunk.

My husband thinks I’m a femme
because I wear lavender, (color and scent),
and ask him to open jars.

All roads meet in me:
butch when I wake up,
femme at lunch.

Androgynous at dinner,
totally trans all night .
Can I get that door for you?


Jan Steckel, 2010

Jan writes "My story Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009) won the Gertrude Press fiction chapbook award for LGBT writers. My chapbook The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006) won a Rainbow Award for lesbian and bisexual poetry. My writing has appeared in Scholastic Magazine, Yale Medicine, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere." Jan's website is here.


I was really happy when Jan shared this poem with me and agreed to let me share it with all of you. I thought this poem was a great match with our exploration of Gender in the new video series GENDER 101!


Be sure to check out these great kid lit celebrations of poetry, (My thanks to Irene Latham for spreading word about them):

Greg Pincus' amazing 30 poets 30 days (An annual event feature poetry by some AMAZING poets!)

Susan Taylor Brown will post Lessons Learned (Mostly About Me) in a Poem-a-Day at http://susanwrites.livejournal.com

April Halprin Wayland will be writing and posting an original poem a day during April.
http://www.aprilwayland.com/poetry/blog

Liz Garton Scanlon will give us her third year of a Haiku-a-Day every day in April!
http://liz-scanlon.livejournal.com/

Jone MacCulloch will post 30 Days-30 Students: A poem a day from students http://maclibrary.wordpress.com

A Poem A Day: A Personal Journey http://doewriter.wordpress.com

Poetry Postcard Project: Have a student written and decorated poem sent to your
home. Email her at macrush53 @yahoo. com.

Jama Rattigan will present her 2nd Annual Poetry Potluck (original poem and favorite recipe by guest bloggers) at http://jamarattigan.livejournal.com

Irene Latham will host a month-long Poetry Party: poetry quotes, trivia, craft tips, publishing resources & free books! http://irenelatham.blogspot.com

Andromeda Jazmon will be doing her fourth year in a row of haiga (original haiku + my photos) at A Wrung Sponge http://awrungsponge.blogspot.com.

Janelle at Brimful Curiosities will host a National Poetry Month Kids Poetry Challenge in which kids are invited to create pictures for the poems she posts each Friday. For details: http://www.brimfulcuriosities.com/2011/03/kids-poetry-challenge-national-poetry.html

Biblio File will be featuring a poem or review of a novel-in-verse every day in
April. www.jenrothschild.com

Anastasia Suen has set up a blog and a Twitter account for students (of all ages) to write
Haiku (about what they leaned at school that day).

Blog: http://eduhaiku.wordpress.com/
Twitter http://twitter.com/EduHaiku

Tricia Stohr-Hunt will host a Poetry in the Classroom series, which will highlight a topic, theme, poet, or book and talk about uses in the classroom. http://missrumphiuseffect.blogspot.com

Stasia Kehoe will be including poetry links, a giveaway of signed arc of debut YA verse novel AUDITION and reviews every Thursday of verse novels. www.swardkehoe.blogspot.com

The Poem Farm will introduce a different poem idea-strategy or poetic technique for children and teachers every day. Each idea-strategy/technique will be followed by links to a few poems from this past year. The blog will also feature poem sharing ideas through "Poetry Peeks" into classrooms. http://poemfarm.blogspot.com/

Mary Lee Hahn will be writing a poem a day again this year, and posting them at A Year of Reading. http://readingyear.blogspot.com/


If you're doing a celebration of kid lit and poetry at your blog/website, feel free to add it here in comments!

You should also check out the weekly Poetry Friday celebrations here:

National Poetry Month Poetry Friday schedule:
April 8 http://www.madiganreads.com/
April 15 http://randomnoodling.blogspot.com/
April 22 http://bookaunt.blogspot.com/
April 29 http://www.tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/


Namaste, and enjoy!

Lee