Physique
A history of homoerotica
from Von Gloeden to Platt Lynes
the male form
lifted from physique magazines
of the fifties
how their images filled our imaginations
in excess
in black or white the imprint
of desire
held in or repressed. Boy with
an arrow
or man with his barbells, or
the tough detective
of the pulps,
the conflicted dreams of the decades
on a glossy page.
Eye candy for the sensitive
set, or the loud
garrulous laughter of the queen.
And later the glossy
spread of stroke magazines,
sexy “Blueboy” and
“Mandate”, later porn sites
on the net. The wet dreams
of many a fearful boy,
hook-ups for the younger
generation. All starting with the Greeks
or that representation
of male anatomy in marble
smoothness or on an urn
how we learned to lust
for what we thought we could not have
the glimpse of the forbidden.
—Walter Holland
__________
Walter Holland, Ph.D., is the author of three books of poetry Circuit (2010), Transatlantic (2001), A Journal of the Plague Years: Poems 1979-1992 (1992) as well as a novel, The March (2011). His short stories have been published in Art and Understanding, Harrington Gay Men’s Fiction Quarterly, and Rebel Yell, Some of his poetry credits include: Antioch Review, Art and Understanding, Barrow Street, Chiron Review, The Cream City Review, Found Object, Pegasus, Phoebe, and Poets for Life:76 Poets Respond to AIDS. He lives in New York City.
