9 LGBT Poets To Know And Love

Celebrating the great LGBT poets of then and now.
From: NewNowNext

 For as long as there’s been language, writers and storytellers have crafted poetry to tease meaning out of the chaos. Great poetry reveals unto its readers new and profound truths about life, and works to tackle the big unanswerables of love, loss and identity.

As Aristotle so wisely put it, “Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.” While not all poetry reaches all readers, when the right poem is read at the right time by the right person, the effects can be truly eye-opening.

For those looking to dig into some nuanced and eye-opening poetry that deals with queer themes, check out a small sampling of some great LGBT poets.

1. 

Walt Whitman 

(1819-1892)

With a masculine swagger, a thick mane of silver hair and a mischievous twinkle in his eye, Walt Whitman was, without question, the original daddy bear. And though, given the time period in which he lived, it was impossible for him to be fully “out,” the buoyant poetry in his opus Leaves of Grass is deliciously homoerotic and speaks effusively of the rich love shared between men.

Plus, he’s rumored to have had a short tryst with the much younger Oscar Wilde, who referred to Whitman simply as “Daddy.” (*Gulp*)

“We Two Boys Together Clinging”

We two boys together clinging

One the other never leaving

Up and down the roads going, North and South excursions making,

Power enjoying, elbows stretching, fingers clutching,

Arm’d and fearless, eating, drinking, sleeping, loving,

No law less than ourselves owning, sailing, soldiering, thieving, threatening,

Misers, menials, priests alarming, air breathing, water drinking, on the turf or the sea-beach dancing,

Cities wrenching, ease scorning, statutes mocking, feebleness chasing,

Fulfilling our foray.