Ars Erotica (Art of Erotic Poetry) and Authorial Intent

Imagine reading this poem from a literary folio published by a Catholic school student publication:

Come, Man-child, Come!

Come, man-child, come!
Come closer, look deeper.
Ignore my inadequate bosom, my enormous hips;
Forget about the torn veil of chastity and its
Promise of orgasmic bliss.
Look at me and see in me the Woman
Who nourished you with her soggy breasts.
Mine are still firm and plump and erect.
Feel them. Suck them like you sucked your Mother's
Back in the days when your universe was just
A Pair of Nipples Overflowing with Maternal Kindness.
Know that I, too, am Masculine:
Provider. Preserver. Protector.
Penetrate me with the force you spend
When you thrust the nail into hardwood
And know that I, too, am
Tough. Strong. Virile.
Go into me deeper, deeper, deeper...
'Til you reach my abyss:
Your Climax; your Peak!
And when you get there don't drift away;
Don't conclude the moment in haste with your clumsy
Ejaculation!
Stay with me and wait for me to Come, too!
Be just.
Be considerate.
Be a Man.
Take time to fathom the depth of the womb
Which molded you and nurtured you
And excites you and delights you
Which you enter and re-enter
And know not yet!

I am a professor at a Catholic school... I wrote this poem about seven years ago to express my feminist sentiments.

Trouble came when the literary staff of the school paper's literary folio deemed this poem worthy of publication and approved its printing and circulation in March 2008. When the folio came out of the press last month, I was admonished by my immediate superior for writing such a "pornographic" piece of filth. Some of my colleagues thought the poem is too sleazy and is reflective of the author's moral state.

I remember a poet from Brooklyn named Walt Whitman, whose poems were considered trash. I remember e.e. cummings' "she being brand" and "i love my body when it is with your." I remember the Song of Songs, the Holy Book's contribution to erotica. I remember the summer of 2002, when I was chosen as one of the ten aspiring writers/poets from all over the country to represent my home city at a national creative writing workshop. This "condemned piece of filth" was my ticket to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This was, and still is, one of my most well-written poems.

Palanca award-winning novelist, Mr. Vince Groyon called this poem "a song of complaint" of misunderstood women who are being "used" as sex objects. Eurasian author of the novel Crocodile Fury, Elizabeth Yahp said that she would never change a word in it, as it already sounds perfect to her. Professor and poet Dr. Marjorie Evasco of De La Salle University finds this poem's diction artistically provocative when she registered that the line, "A Pair of Nipples Overflowing with Maternal Kindness" tickled her pink.

National Artist and multi-awarded poet/writer Dr. Cirilo F. Bautista calls poetry a "linguistic daring." In other words, the poet must dare explore the power of words and must harness this power to deliver his/her social commentary and express his/her observations of life in the real world, as well as to effect change.

I do not write poetry to describe the beautiful world, with all its birds and flowers and bees. I do not write poetry to sugar-coat realities. I write poetry to describe what traditional poets (who love to rhyme) would rather ignore. I write poetry to unmask the real world, where women are discriminated against, where poverty dehumanizes, where hypocrisy is second nature to man.

And now, I have fallen victim to this hypocrisy. Those who do not have what we call the "poetic insight" would, naturally, fail to go beyond the word or diction of this poem in question. I am not responsible for their ignorance. They fail to see the authorial intent, the meaning I would have wanted them to see. On the surface, this poem may scandalize the average church-going, Bible-reading individual. Then, I dare say, this same Bible-reading church-goer MUST read the Song of Songs and judge King Solomon by his "lustful" words!