The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 1/14/08

[BlueIris]

"Practicing"

I want to write a love poem for the girls I kissed in seventh grade,
a song for what we did on the floor in the basement

of somebody's parents’ house, a hymn for what we didn't say but thought:
That feels good, or I like that, when we learned how to open each other's
     mouths

how to move our tongues to make somebody moan.  We called it
     practicing, and
one was the boy and we paired off—maybe six or eight girls—and
     turned out

the lights and kissed and kissed until we were stoned on kisses, and
     lifted our
nightgowns or let the straps drop, and, Now you be the boy:

concrete floor, sleeping bag or couch, playroom, game room, train
     room, laundry.
Linda's basement was like a boat with booths and portholes

instead of windows.  Gloria's father had a bar downstairs with stools
     that spun,
plush carpeting.  We kissed each other's throats.

We sucked each other's breasts, and we left marks, and never spoke of it
     upstairs
outdoors, in daylight, not once.  We did it, and it was

practicing, and slept, sprawled so our legs still locked or crossed, a hand
     still lost 
in someone's hair. . . and we grew up and hardly mentioned who

the first kiss really was—a girl like us, still sticky with the moisturizer we'd 
shared in the bathroom.  I want to write a song

for that thick silence in the dark, and the first pure thrill of unreluctant 
     desire,
just before we made ourselves stop.

—Marie Howe

[ThomCat]

1. "I want to write a love poem for the girls I kissed..."

It definitely looks like she did. :)

I wonder if anyone really has experiences like this this, with no fear, no shame, no worry about people finding out and what they would say or do because of it, and that much trust in the other people. I remember that age in school as being incredibly traumatic and lonely and full of teenaged betrayals. I just can't imagine a group of friends spontaneously agreeing to "practice" like this.

:shrug:

The poem is well written and sounds sincere though. You can definitely believe that this happened.

[BlueIris]

2. When I heard Marie Howe read this aloud in college in 1998, she finished the poem by saying,

"And some of you all in this room know what I'm talking about, I hope."

Hee.

[BlueIris]

3. Oh, come on, this is my best poetry break in WEEKS.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. I want to write a love poem --- ummm

I think she just did ;)

[BlueIris]

5. I like the way Marie Howe sometimes states her intentions simply at the beginning of poems.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. My dear BlueIris!

Wow!

That has the ring of truth to it...

Very beautiful...

Very lusty!

Thank you...

:hug:

[BlueIris]

7. Yes, it is lusty.

So why doesn't it have more comments???

[fizzgig]

8. this is wonderful

honest and passionate

[BlueIris]

10. That's what I say. nt

[RetroLounge]

9. Mmmm

"and kissed and kissed until we were stoned on kisses"

nice.

:hi:

RL