October 2014
I am 77, a queer poet, a leader in the Anglican Communion, and an emeritus professor at Rutgers. I live in East Orange with Ernest Clay. Last summer a town clerk made legal what we and God made holy when we were marriage outlaws forty years ago in rural Georgia. I celebrated by taking my husband’s last name, Clay. I was born Louie Crew.
I believe that poetry is everyone’s birthright. Too often teachers and writers turn off people to poetry and the literary imagination by not connecting to the dynamic poetry in our blood. Even small babies do not say “Goo!” They say “Goo, goo” or more likely “Goo, goo! Goo, goo! Goo, goo!”
I work hard to help poets connect with publishers, mainly through my site listing over 1,000 publishers who welcome electronic submissions. (http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/pbonline.html). I also am a stealth performer of poetry. I often sneak it into talks and other public discourse without ever framing it as poetry.
At the beginning of the 20th century almost all people with a high school education knew by heart many poems. At the beginning of the 21st, most knew by heart only the poems musicians had cleverly sneaked in through songs.
As of today, 2,436 editors have published my poems, essays, and photographs. See a current list at http://www-rci.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/pubs.html. See alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Crew#Queer_Poet_and_Writer
Don't Hang Up
Don't hang up,
I'm not a heckler.
I NEED your help
but I can't tell you my name.
I'm in a phone booth
while mom buys groceries,
so I won't take long.
I heard your talk show
and I'm scared. Last summer,
when I was just thirteen,
I balled with a guy
I met at the bus station.
Now I've got these purple spots
all down my stomach.
I drink five shakes a day
and I have lost fifteen pounds
in just three months!
I'm afraid to go to our doctor
cause he's my dad.
He'd beat the shit out of me
for liking guys.
Can you tell me somebody else
to call?
Cripes! Here comes mom. Bye!
Hear Louie Clay's reading of Don't Hang Up on Youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP6LUTO5o6o
Don't Hang Up has been published in:
Other Voice. Spring/Summer 1982: no page
Integrity Heartland Voice. June 1992: 11
Integrity/Austin News. 7.11 (July 1992): 3
Koinonia. 5.5 (May 1992): 11
More Light Update. 13.5 (December 1992): 13
Walking With Integrity. 1.2 (May 1992): 23
Blue Productions. August 1992. A 3-minute video produced and directed by Scott Silver. An adaptation of Crew's poem of the same title
Don't Hang Up. An Anthology of Poems about AIDS. Edited by Andrew Miller. Univ. of SD Press, USD AIDS Task Force, & Copen Foundation, 1993. Crew's title poem appears on p. 16
Making Waves. 2.2 (February 1995): 2
Rural Gays and Lesbians. An Anthology edited by James D. Smith and Ronald Mancoske. NY: Harrington Park Press, 1997. Pages 105-106
Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services. 7.3 (1997): 105-106
Ithuriel's Spear. from January 1, 2005.
Poetrykit Anthology. from January 1, 2005 http://www.poetrykit.org/an/125p.htm
Poetry Kit. No. 7 (May 2006). http://www.poetrykit.org/pkmag/pkmag7/004.htm
Facebook. from March 10, 2011 http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150108056108732
Ringpoem.com. From 11/15/2011. http://ringpoem.com/mine/9733951068
Youtube. Online from March 29, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP6LUTO5o6o
Caught in the Net. No. 99 (December 2011): Poetry by Louie Crew http://www.poetrykit.org/pkl/CITN/citn%2099.htm
Reiter's Block. From January 18, 2012 http://jendireiter.com/2012/01/18/two-poems-by-louie-crew.aspx
Amulet. Vol. 9, Number 78 (June 12, 2012)
In Retreat
In the refectory, a fellow guest
forgot the Great Silence and lit into me
as the most available soul to whom
to complain about the "modernist garbage"
one of the monks had had written,
suggesting that Jesus might not have realized
who he was until after the Resurrection.
"Shhhh," I gently whispered, "Not to inhibit you,
but we are still in the Great Silence...."
He scorned, "Well, I may offend you,
but that really doesn't matter!"
and walked off.
Later, he regretted he had broken the Silence
and was most generous with the Peace.
At supper, he complained
that heresy and modernism
are driving folks away,
"Over two million in the last decade!"
Many of my students give an opposite reason
for abandoning the faith of their families:
they see the Church as nit-picking and
irrelevant to the world in which they live.
Choose
Equally poor?
Why not equally rich?
Squint or smile at the sky?
Clueless
The Bishop, late, asked,
"You mean some don't have
a summer or winter home?"
Ah, 50!
Welcome to half a century
I hit that mark 27 years ago.
Now I notice it mainly by a new spot
on my hand, a new mole around my eyelid,
a new sharpness in the lower right arm.
I need three-in-one at every synapse.
But welcome. Joy anyway!
Don't hang up,
I'm not a heckler.
I NEED your help
but I can't tell you my name.
I'm in a phone booth
while mom buys groceries,
so I won't take long.
I heard your talk show
and I'm scared. Last summer,
when I was just thirteen,
I balled with a guy
I met at the bus station.
Now I've got these purple spots
all down my stomach.
I drink five shakes a day
and I have lost fifteen pounds
in just three months!
I'm afraid to go to our doctor
cause he's my dad.
He'd beat the shit out of me
for liking guys.
Can you tell me somebody else
to call?
Cripes! Here comes mom. Bye!
Hear Louie Clay's reading of Don't Hang Up on Youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP6LUTO5o6o
Don't Hang Up has been published in:
Other Voice. Spring/Summer 1982: no page
Integrity Heartland Voice. June 1992: 11
Integrity/Austin News. 7.11 (July 1992): 3
Koinonia. 5.5 (May 1992): 11
More Light Update. 13.5 (December 1992): 13
Walking With Integrity. 1.2 (May 1992): 23
Blue Productions. August 1992. A 3-minute video produced and directed by Scott Silver. An adaptation of Crew's poem of the same title
Don't Hang Up. An Anthology of Poems about AIDS. Edited by Andrew Miller. Univ. of SD Press, USD AIDS Task Force, & Copen Foundation, 1993. Crew's title poem appears on p. 16
Making Waves. 2.2 (February 1995): 2
Rural Gays and Lesbians. An Anthology edited by James D. Smith and Ronald Mancoske. NY: Harrington Park Press, 1997. Pages 105-106
Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services. 7.3 (1997): 105-106
Ithuriel's Spear. from January 1, 2005.
Poetrykit Anthology. from January 1, 2005 http://www.poetrykit.org/an/125p.htm
Poetry Kit. No. 7 (May 2006). http://www.poetrykit.org/pkmag/pkmag7/004.htm
Facebook. from March 10, 2011 http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150108056108732
Ringpoem.com. From 11/15/2011. http://ringpoem.com/mine/9733951068
Youtube. Online from March 29, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP6LUTO5o6o
Caught in the Net. No. 99 (December 2011): Poetry by Louie Crew http://www.poetrykit.org/pkl/CITN/citn%2099.htm
Reiter's Block. From January 18, 2012 http://jendireiter.com/2012/01/18/two-poems-by-louie-crew.aspx
Amulet. Vol. 9, Number 78 (June 12, 2012)
In Retreat
In the refectory, a fellow guest
forgot the Great Silence and lit into me
as the most available soul to whom
to complain about the "modernist garbage"
one of the monks had had written,
suggesting that Jesus might not have realized
who he was until after the Resurrection.
"Shhhh," I gently whispered, "Not to inhibit you,
but we are still in the Great Silence...."
He scorned, "Well, I may offend you,
but that really doesn't matter!"
and walked off.
Later, he regretted he had broken the Silence
and was most generous with the Peace.
At supper, he complained
that heresy and modernism
are driving folks away,
"Over two million in the last decade!"
Many of my students give an opposite reason
for abandoning the faith of their families:
they see the Church as nit-picking and
irrelevant to the world in which they live.
Choose
Equally poor?
Why not equally rich?
Squint or smile at the sky?
Clueless
The Bishop, late, asked,
"You mean some don't have
a summer or winter home?"
Ah, 50!
Welcome to half a century
I hit that mark 27 years ago.
Now I notice it mainly by a new spot
on my hand, a new mole around my eyelid,
a new sharpness in the lower right arm.
I need three-in-one at every synapse.
But welcome. Joy anyway!
©2014 Louie Clay