Showing posts with label Saltair Beach-Inspired Poem (in Salt Lake City Utah). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saltair Beach-Inspired Poem (in Salt Lake City Utah). Show all posts

Thursday, November 25, 2021

Post No. 026: My First Gay Friend, Part 2 — One (and) Two


(Image from Gleneden Beach Community Club)

One

You think I am
there—even
expect me to be—
as you extract
the lake from
sodium sand,
with your Keds
ultraviolet
in the moonlight.

Vainly, you look
for me—just like
you search for the
specter terns,
costumed by night,
whose crying
above you
hallucinates
into a noctural sky
of wailing stars.

Two

Moaning seagulls
mock my orgasmic
anthem, as my
exhausted knees
dig into
the gritty linen of
his cool bed,
succumbing to
my flailing muscles.

For, I am there—
just as I have been
the sixty-five times
before—rotting with
the brine fly pupal
casings, breathing
ripples in the water,
making love to
the beach.

-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., A Creative Writer)
"I maybe say too much about how life really is!"

My Writing Notes:

The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: The original "Saltair I" and "Saltair II" Resorts used to be located in Salt Lake City, Utah on the Great Salt Lake, which is west of the Salt Lake International Airport. And, in the late 1980s, it was just "a road," with some old pilings protruding from the lake and from "the road."

And my first gay friend Greg introduced me to Saltair Beach in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the original "Saltair I" and "Saltair II" Pavilions both stood—before fire and fortune destroyed them both! And that is how I came to know and love this place "away from civilization," where I could commune with nature. [Please see "Saltair Beach-Inspired Poem (in Salt Lake City Utah)" in labels for my poems about Saltair.] You can still see the pilings from these once magnificent structures, along with the cement shell of the old power building.

And, way back in the late 1980s, Greg and I used to walk along 'the road' that lead out to the lake where the original "Saltair I" and "Saltair II" Pavilions once stood—and we would go there during storms in order to watch how the weather would interact with the Great Salt Lake!

And so, Greg told me this one time that he had been at the beach and he said that he could feel my presence there—as if he practically expected to see me there too! So, I wrote this poem with the "One" representing the time Greg was there (and expected me to be there also) and with the "Two" representing that time that I was actually there "relieving sexual tensions," so to speak, at the beach, while I was fantasizing that I was making love to another male.

And this poem was also published on my "Small All White in the Forest" blog (please see the hyperlink below for the blog), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message that I am trying to convey through "Small All White in the Forest."

This poem was written in Salt Lake City, Utah.

-Paulee

https://smallallwhiteintheforest.blogspot.com

This "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" Post No. 026 was edited on September 6th, 2023.

"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Post No. 025: My First Gay Friend, Part 1 — The Road To...


(Image from Gleneden Beach Community Club)

The Road To...

At the beach in a night-time
storm, we lithograph
sand with our formerly-white
shoes and travel the fossil
of Saltair Resort toward
shaking gray waters.

Wisdom pours forth from
two Socratic men—with
no less fluidity than the
deluge—spawning the surf
to surge against the rocks
in resounding appeasement.

You—defying the ebony abyss—
and I—longing to dilute into it—
simmer to wishes of Earl Grey tea,
as we a cappella that Simon and
Garfunkel theme, delighting the
brine fly pupal casings beneath us.

Of coconut incense taste your
words—spoken warm and swift
as the ivory tern slicing
through the sable rain, yet
certain like the waves coursing
toward us in the wind—

when you call me your friend.

-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., A Creative Writer)
"I maybe say too much about how life really is!"

My Writing Notes:

The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: The original "Saltair I" and "Saltair II" Resorts used to be located in Salt Lake City, Utah on the Great Salt Lake, which is west of the Salt Lake International Airport. And, in the late 1980s, it was just "a road," with some old pilings protruding from the lake and from "the road."

And my first gay friend Greg introduced me to Saltair Beach in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the original "Saltair I" and "Saltair II" Pavilions both stood—before fire and fortune destroyed them both! And that is how I came to know and love this place "away from civilization," where I could commune with nature. [Please see "Saltair Beach-Inspired Poem (in Salt Lake City Utah)" in labels for my poems about Saltair.] You can still see the pilings from these once magnificent structures, along with the cement shell of the old power building.

And, way back in the late 1980s, Greg and I used to walk along 'the road' that lead out to the lake where the original "Saltair I" and "Saltair II" Pavilions once stood—and we would go there during storms in order to watch how the weather would interact with the Great Salt Lake!

And, after Greg and I had been spending time together for a few months, one night along "The Road To..." he told me, for the first time, that he considered me to be one of his closest friends! It really meant a lot to me, since I am such an introvert, which is why I wrote this poem.

Anyway, that particular night, during a storm, we were singing the song "Bridge Over Troubled Water," by Simon and Garfunkel, for obvious reasons... And we were also fantasizing about being back at his apartment drinking Earl Grey tea. (I still lived with my parents, since I was in college, which is where I met Greg.)

And this poem was also published on my "Small All White in the Forest" blog (please see the hyperlink below for the blog), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message that I am trying to convey through "Small All White in the Forest."

This poem was written in Salt Lake City, Utah.

-Paulee

https://smallallwhiteintheforest.blogspot.com

This "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" Post No. 025 was edited on September 6th, 2023.

"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Post No. 024: What Stirs in Me, Part 4 — Your Breath


(Image from Flickr)

Your Breath
(Or, "God's Breath")

Salted air woven like cotton
that is worn comfortably at the
beach; though it's too thin to
insulate, it still embraces me.

Night angels illuminate
this inverted weave.
Their rubber soles wailing
as they sixty-five by.

Your spirit shawls me this
quilted night-tide, like
the afghan vapors that
blanket the shivering moon.

The veil between You
and I is merely thread.
Sanity may obscure You—
but I know Your Breath.

-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., A Creative Writer)
"I maybe say too much about how life really is!"

My Writing Notes:

The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: The original "Saltair I" and "Saltair II" Resorts used to be located in Salt Lake City, Utah on the Great Salt Lake, which is west of the Salt Lake International Airport. And, in the late 1980s, it was just "a road," with some old pilings protruding from the lake and from "the road."

And my first gay friend Greg introduced me to Saltair Beach in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the original "Saltair I" and "Saltair II" Pavilions both stood—before fire and fortune destroyed them both! And that is how I came to know and love this place "away from civilization," where I could commune with nature. [Please see "Saltair Beach-Inspired Poem (in Salt Lake City Utah)" in labels for my poems about Saltair.] You can still see the pilings from these once magnificent structures, along with the cement shell of the old power building.

So, I used to drive out to Saltair Beach during the day, and at night, in order to be at one with nature and to go for solitary walks. Then, this one time, I drove out to Saltair Beach at night in a fog! And, as I was walking around in the fog, while I was hearing the cars on the freeway driving by, I felt like I could practically reach out and touch God, if I could just—somehow—get past the fog! It was such a spiritually moving experience that I wrote this poem...

And this poem was also published on my "Small All White in the Forest" blog (please see the hyperlink below for the blog), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message that I am trying to convey through "Small All White in the Forest."

This poem was written in Salt Lake City, Utah.

-Paulee

https://smallallwhiteintheforest.blogspot.com

This "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" Post No. 024 was edited on April 15th, 2024.

"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]