13 Of The Gayest Poems To Ever Exist In History

    Roses are red, violets are blue, women love women, what's it to you?

    Ashley Simone Johnson
    by Ashley Simone Johnson

    BuzzFeed Contributor

    Happy Poet's Day! In honor of this holiday, I'm sharing a baker's dozen of the queerest poems I've ever come across, as a treat.

    Because after all, lesbians invented poetry! And we only have the iconic Sappho ("The Poetess") to thank for the classic Sapphic stanza, as well as for the most divinely penned lyrics, which have inspired so many after her.

    1. "My Lover Is a Woman" by Pat Parker

    youtube.com

    "my lover is a woman
    & when i hold her
    feel her warmth
    i feel good"

    Well, it doesn't get any more straightforward (and gay) than this. This poet and gay rights activist does not beat around the bush when it comes to her affairs. She does not use words like "partner" or "good friend," but is the most transparent. She wants everyone to know that she loves a woman and is loved by a woman. And that's that on that.

    2. "A Gay Poem" by Keith Jarrett

    CenterArts / youtube.com / Via youtube.com

    "Excuse me, Poem
    Are you gay?
    Have you grown contrarily
    To what I wanted you to say?"

    Here, we have another explicitly gay poem that we are glad exists, and was nonetheless recorded! Believe it or not, Jarrett actually made this poem up on the spot at a spoken word event. And well, he came out and showed up on that stage, and did what he had to do for gays everywhere. Also yes, the rest of the poem is just as animated as this one bit here sounds, and is definitely worth the watch!

    3. "For the Goddess Too Well Known" by Elsa Gidlow

    Feline Purrstory / Tumblr

    "I have brought her, laughing,
    To my quietly dreaming garden.
    For what will be done there
    I ask no man pardon."

    Girls and gays just want to have fun (in the garden)! The characters in this poem just want to kiss, be in love, and be at one with nature (and each other), and who are men to tell them that they can't?

    This poem says "gay rights!" and "women's rights!" louder than ever and we honestly can't help but chant along.

    4. "Dreaming of Lesbos" by Tatiana de la Tierra

    youtube.com

    "I can enter the morning with traces of an eternal dream: to live
    on a planet of women. we sing in the fertile forest, caress on
    lavender hills, bathe beneath cascades of clear waters."

    Did you think we weren't going to refer to the island of Lesbos at least once on this list? Lesbos is the lesbian motherland and of course, the very birthplace of Sappho. This poet and activist has most certainly evoked our yearning to move to another planet (especially right now), and we cannot think of a better planet than one of women.

    5. "body without the “d”" by Justice Ameer

    6. "For the Courtesan Ch’ing Lin" by Wu Tsao

    Shuil Writes / WordPress / Via shuilwritesblog.wordpress.com

    "We play wine games
    And recite each other’s poems.
    Then you sing `Remembering South of the River’"

    Wine, poetry, AND music? This actually sounds like the perfect date for lesbians (take notes, girls and gays).

    Tsao is quite the celebrated poet in China and her poems are typically sung throughout the nation... Imagine this poem being on international radio? Could be quite the gay anthem if you ask us.

    7. "Six Sonnets: Crossing the West" by Janice Gould

    SmithsonianNMAI / youtube.com

    "Will these kisses seal
    her to me? I her lover, she my wife?
    Is all of this a dream, my whole life?"

    Gould may not be dreaming of Lesbos, but she is equating her lover to a dream in this poem, which is equally as gay. And we truly hope that the love interest in this poem will be by her side till the end of time, because we think she has proven to be nothing but wifey material with this very gay material right here.

    8. "The 17-Year-Old & the Gay Bar" by Danez Smith

    9. "A Second Train Song for Gary" by Jack Spicer

    Helen Adam / Poets.org / Via poets.org

    "When the trains come into strange cities
    The citizens come out to meet the strangers.
    I love you, Jack, he said"

    Usually we would associate "I love you's" and train rides with lesbians. But with this one simple poem Spicer normalizes LDRs amongst gay men (which we never saw coming), and so, we cannot help but stan!

    10. "The Dream" by Aphra Behn

    J Newman / YouTube / Via youtube.com

    "Now the last mystery of Love she knows,
    We sigh, and kiss: I waked, and all was done.

    ‘Twas but a dream, yet by my heart I knew,
    Which still was panting, part of it was true:"

    Okay, it seems like dreaming is quite the common theme throughout queer poetry. And we are honestly here for any and all manifestations that bring more good into the world, especially if that good includes the magic that is lesbian love!

    11. "Gay Pride Weekend, S.F., 1992" by Brenda Shaughnessy

    Taylor Hill / FilmMagic

    "The love we made leapt
    to life like a cat in the space
    between us (if there ever was
    space between us)"

    Well, if we know one thing about lesbians, it's that they are experts at u-hauling and moving in together after the second date. So naturally, Shaughnessy lets us know just how close her and her partner are, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

    12. "[Didn’t Sappho say her guts clutched up like this?]" by Marilyn Hacker

    Poets.org / youtube.com

    "Didn’t Sappho say her guts clutched up like this?
    Before a face suddenly numinous,
    *
    sweetheart, it isn’t lust; it’s all the rest
    of what I want with you that scares me shitless."

    If the one and only Sappho is getting a shoutout, then we know the poem's got to be chaotically good (and gay). Hacker also desexualizes lesbianism (which is important) in this one by stating the depicted relationship isn't built on mere lust, but so much more, aka real feelies and L.O.V.E.

    13. "A Regret" by David Trinidad

    David Trinidad / Twitter

    "Drove home and
    put him in
    a poem"

    It's already pretty gay to write a whole poem describing your kiss with a boy under the LA moon, but Trinidad does not stop there. The author is known for writing about love, culture, and real people, and in this last gem of a poem we have for you, he (literally) writes about how he is going to write about this boy he has a crush on.

    It doesn't get any more gay, meta, and real than this, does it?