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    One-Night Stand and Other Poems
    One-Night Stand and Other Poems
    One-Night Stand and Other Poems
    Ebook210 pages1 hour

    One-Night Stand and Other Poems

    By Arnold T. Schwab

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    About this ebook

    Im a big fan of Arnold Schwabs poems -- devilishly clever, and revealing, to say the least! As a ninety year old myself who hangs on to his sexuality, I give a cheer to another ninety year old who refuses to allow himself to be neutered by societys ageist prejudices and writes about his sexuality. I cant praise enough these skilful, entertaining poems that invite us to peer in through his bedroom window -- and theres plenty going on there!
    -Edward Field

    I love reading Arnold Schwabs poetry, and you will too. Witty, bracing, sexy, elegant, self-deprecating, but always honest, his verse covers a full range of human experience with a kind eye and understanding heart. As a craftsman in the art of poetry, hes stingy with words, choosing only the fittest. Lucky reader, see for yourself.
    -Leslie B. Mittleman
    Emeritus Professor of English, CSULB

    If A. E. Housman were alive in the past three decades, he would have welcomed Arnold Schwabs keenly crafted and frank observations on life as an aging gay man. Literate, ironic, humorous, and at times poignant, these poems are a welcome addition to the canon of 21st-century poetry. Readers of any sexual orientation will find something in them to cherish and relate to.
    -Clifton Snider

    While most writers are past their creative momentum in their eighties, Arnold Schwabs pen does not run dry. Well into his nineties he continues to write poems with news that stays news, contemplating among other themes loves that might have been, and recording underexplored frontiers of gay experience in old age. Saturated with ever present irony and humor paired with self-knowledge and expert skills, Schwabs use of vocabulary, rhyme, and meter creates a generous legacy that contributes to our knowledge of the gay human condition from youth to advanced old age. The range of themes in this collection is as impressive as the span of decades and the cultural changes it addresses.
    -James Benedict, PhD
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateMay 20, 2014
    ISBN9781496904850
    One-Night Stand and Other Poems
    Author

    Arnold T. Schwab

    Arnold T. Schwab, born in Los Angeles in 1922, a Naval officer during WW II and a Harvard Ph.D., taught English at UCLA, University of Michigan, and, for twenty years, at California State University, Long Beach. He has published four scholarly books, including a prize-winning biography of critic James Gibbons Huneker, and many articles on music, drama, and American and English literature. A former tennis player, he enjoys watching tennis tournaments and Dodger games on TV and is a veteran bridge player and film-watcher. He contributes to many charities and has been a strong supporter of the gay movement for more than sixty years.

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      A marginal poet of the SF crowd of archaic interest to hipsters.

    Book preview

    One-Night Stand and Other Poems - Arnold T. Schwab

    AuthorHouse™ LLC

    1663 Liberty Drive

    Bloomington, IN 47403

    www.authorhouse.com

    Phone: 1-800-839-8640

    © 2014 Arnold T. Schwab. All rights reserved.

    No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

    Published by AuthorHouse 06/19/2014

    ISBN: 978-1-4969-0487-4 (sc)

    ISBN: 978-1-4969-0486-7 (hc)

    ISBN: 978-1-4969-0485-0 (e)

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2014906794

    Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

    and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

    Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

    Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

    Contents

    Acknowledgements

    A.   Early Gay

    1.   After the Ball

    2.   Reputations

    3.   Killed in Action

    4.   Born Again

    5.   First Gay Date

    6.   First Relationship

    7.   Midnight Snack

    8.   Cruising the Penny Arcade

    9.   One-Night Stand

    10.   The Excuse

    11.   Before Foreplay

    12.   The Old Flame

    13.   Sexual Education

    14.   Over Twenty-One

    15.   Not Exactly Tit for Tat

    16.   The Prize Exhibit

    17.   Double Change

    18.   Finis

    19.   Couples

    20.   The Chase

    21.   The Breakup

    22.   Imaginary Marriage

    23.   The Six Who Got Away: Aborted Romances

    24.   From a Hotel Opposite Montparnasse Cemetery

    25.   Illusion and Disillusion

    26.   Straight Men

    27.   An End to Prospecting

    28.   A Change of Luck

    B.   Gay Relationships

    29.   Shower Song

    30.   The Battery

    31.   Bussing

    32.   Mona Lisa With Moustache

    33.   Three-Way

    34.   The Leopard Who Changes Spots

    35.   Affirmative Action

    36.   Compound-Complex

    37.   Midnight Episode

    38.   To an Undemonstrative Younger Bisexual Lover

    39.   Lover’s Quarrel

    40.   Old Man

    41.   Cold Season

    C.   Miscellaneous Portraits

    42.   Acid Rain

    43.   A Climate Change

    44.   Lament for a Suicide

    45.   Las Vegas Vignette

    46.   Black Man Sleeping in Penn Station

    47.   The Cost

    48.   Eulogy for my Dog

    49.   Portnoy’s Midnight Meditation

    50.   Memorial Service on Campus

    51.   Portrait of a Teacher

    52.   Jim Kepner

    53.   The Sacred Flute

    54.   The Priest

    55.   Easter Sermon for Fundamentalists

    56.   At the Circulation Desk

    57.   Bingo Night at the Lions Club

    58.   Gay Poetry Night at the Chelsea Book Store

    59.   Retort to Bible-spouting Homophobes

    60.   Touché

    61.   The Gardener

    62.   Recollections of an Old Runaway

    63.   Compensation

    64.   Lullaby for My Mother

    D.   Parents, Relatives and Friend

    65.   Swan Song

    66.   Inheritance

    67.   Induction Notice

    68.   To My Father Lying in a Coma

    69.   Body Language

    70.   Coming and Going

    71.   True to Life

    72.   Instead of a Wreath

    73.   To Barry on Your Birthday

    74.   To Pat on Her Birthday

    E.   Celebrities

    75.   Apocryphal Anecdote with Accent

    76.   Scenes from the Later Life of Oscar Wilde

    77.   Bosie: Phases in the Life of Lord Alfred Douglas

    78.   Encounter in Rome

    79.   Patrician Meets Pimp

    80.   A Lucky Love

    81.   To A. E. Housman

    82.   Montgomery Clift: A Portrait

    83.   The Ballad of Billy Jean

    84.   The Life and Death of Liberace

    85.   Let Her Go: The Transcontinental Flight of Cal Rodgers

    F.   Old Age

    86.   The Golden Years

    87.   On My Sixtieth Birthday

    88.   Estate Sale

    89.   Afternoon of a Faust

    90.   Scrapbook

    91.   Christmas-card Book

    92.   Free Gift

    93.   An Old Man’s Halloween

    94.   Virgin

    95.   Bridge Club

    96.   My Eighty-Eighth Birthday

    97.   My Eighty-Ninth Birthday

    98.   On Reading a Diary Fifty Years Later

    99.   Revenge

    100.   Sex at Ninety

    101.   The Visitor

    G.   Light Poems

    102.   Coincidence

    103.   Chicken: An Octogenarian’s Musing

    104.   The Flamelessness of Peace

    105.   Voyeur

    106.   In Praise of Science

    107.   Nemesis

    108.   Rosenkavalier: An Epilogue

    109.   A Bisexual’s Fantasy

    110.   Mixed Reaction

    111.   Elegy for a Gay Giraffe

    112.   Chinese Politics

    113.   Walking (?) My Dog

    114.   Flirting With My Dog

    115.   Medievalists

    This book is dedicated to

    Elliot Fried and Douglas Johnson.

    Acknowledgements

    Some of the poems collected here appeared in little magazines such as Pursuit, Gay Books Bulletin, Electrum, California Voice, Riprap, AKA Magazine, Pearl, Poetry LA.. and The Gay and Lesbian Review; the Los Angeles Times; and in anthologies Amorotica and Men Talk. A number of them were published in my chapbook, Elegy for a Gay Giraffe (Applezaba Press, 1988.)

    After the Ball

    The college prom drew near and I required

    A female date. I could not bring a guy

    As one courageous gay youth did in high

    School later. Now, no hero, I desired

    What other juniors did, and was inspired

    To ask a plain but bright co-ed in my

    Drama class, hoping that she would not try

    To be more than a one-night escort hired

    To dance with me.

    But post-prom I grew tense.

    Would she expect that now I would make out

    With her? My brain revolved in fruitless swirls

    On how I could decline without offense,

    Avoiding any giveaway or doubt,

    Until she said Relax, friend. I like girls.

    Reputations

    "You sure as hell don’t look or sound

    Like a Navy officer;

    The Navy must have been awfully hard up

    During the war

    When they made you a JG!"

    I reddened. ( I would have made full lieutenant

    If promotions hadn’t been frozen

    A month before I was due.)

    But what could I say (in my high voice?)

    It was 1948, and I, a Naval Reservist,

    On a training cruise to Europe

    With eager Annapolis midshipmen,

    Was bunked with regular Navy ensigns

    Freshly graduated from Annapolis.

    A ninety-day wonder

    Under the V-7 program,

    Which was supposed to allow college students to graduate

    Before being called to Midshipmen School

    To receive three months training

    And an ensign’s commission,

    I didn’t feel like an officer

    Despite two years in the Pacific

    Aboard a baby aircraft carrier.

    Now a baby-faced graduate student in English at Harvard,

    I didn’t talk about dames

    But spent my off-duty hours

    Reading for the PhD oral exam.

    In my working hours on this ship,

    I sat in an office coding and decoding messages

    As I had done during the war.

    My favorite duty then was writing poems

    For the yearbooks at graduation from Communication School

    And at the dock in Tacoma,

    While the carrier awaited decommissioning.

    When the ensigns’ taunts continued,

    What plain message, I wondered,

    Could I send them

    To end their insults?

    When we reached Villefranche

    And some officers, hot for whores,

    Were asked to request condoms.

    I got an idea.

    I remembered reading

    That Oscar Wilde, in exile

    In a French village,

    Went, at Ernest Dowson’s insistence,

    To visit the ladies of the night with the poet.

    When Dowson asked him, as they left,

    How he had liked the visit,

    It was like chewing cold mutton, Wilde replied,

    "But tell it in England

    Where it will entirely restore my reputation."

    So when condoms were distributed to officers,

    I lined up

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