Devon Hunter

Quite some time back, I did an interview with former Titan Man, Josh O’Hara. Since that time he and I have become good friends, and I enjoy seeing him every visit to San Francisco. He’s a beautiful man, but I think we as a community should start distinguishing what we mean by that. When I say Josh is beautiful, it is because he is as kind, good, and intelligent as he is handsome. Here is a poem he wrote (some of the imagery of which reminds me of my Valentine haiku from February, 2010). I love it, and I hope you do, too.

“In Winter”
by Josh O’Hara

In winter,
there will be no children passing from my door
to play in the hinterland of the summer stricken fields.

The dandelions will continue-

as they have for centuries,

to slumber on hilltops

while

winds rage through a cold,

and wild Nantucket.

Summer is a fable here.

While calmly,

I contemplate the rising heat from your skin
that swirls into the glacial sky.

I am struck by the beauty that is you

and

I can begin to imagine
what it would be like:

To hold your hand through an Indian Summer.

Bending low. Leaning low.
Though not breaking-

Yet, falling still-

my petals

scatter with the wind

Casting me into the wilderness

Of you.

Dear Matt,

When I wrote this I wanted to make you into heaven-angel/landscape-garden, because of your blue eyes (sky), light hair (sun), fair skin (clouds/marble), and intoxicating sex (flowers/nectar). Do you see how beautiful you are to me?

The structure of the poem is this: I created three haiku. I don’t know if you know what a haiku is, but it is a strictly set form from Japan. The poem must have three lines, the first line having exactly five syllables, the second having exactly seven, and the third exactly five again. That’s hard to do, especially when you also have to say something metaphorical within those parameters!!

Anyway, I used the first haiku to make connections between you and heaven, the second to make you an angel (fitting for Valentine’s Day, since cupid is a winged god), and the third to connect you to flowers and their scents.

Something else to notice: The vowel patterns. Azure/hallowed/hand/dazzling/man/happy all have the same “a” sound in them, and they are all penultimate (next to the last) words on the first and second lines of each haiku. There is also a true rhyme with gates/radiates/opiates, and a false rhyme (same sound, difference spelling of sound) with rays/haze/bouquets. There is another true rhyme on the first word of the third line of each haiku with baring/daring/flaring.

Finally, and this was important, given that the other poem you said was written about you didn’t make sense, the three haiku can be read as one sentence that says exactly what I mean: You are a beautifully intoxicating man.

Heaven’s azure gates
open under hallowed rays,
baring an angel

whose hand radiates
prisms of dazzling haze,
daring me to hope

his man-opiates
will be, like happy bouquets,
flaring into bloom.

Thus:
Heaven’s azure gates open under hallowed rays, baring an angel whose hand radiates prisms of dazzling haze, daring me to hope his man-opiates will be, like happy bouquets, flaring into bloom.

PS

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