Citysqwirl on YouTube

Trying to build up my YouTube base -- please take a second and subscribe to my poetry and humor channel, if you would be so kind?

Citysqwirl on YouTube

Thanks, baby.

My Issue with the Excellent LGBTQ Civil Rights Law Supreme Court Decision

In response to this New York Times article, "Civil Rights Law Protects Gay and Transgender Workers, Supreme Court Rules," by Adam Liptak, June 15, 2020, from where I also got this picture.

I am absolutely thrilled with this decision by the Supreme Court, and pleasantly surprised by Roberts and Gorsuch joining the majority opinion. But it pains me greatly to have to agree with the horrible Alito and Kavanaugh that "sex" does not legally cover "sexual orientation" or "gender." I would much prefer that those be added to the 1964 law as separate protections.

Sexual orientation, or sexuality, the direction of love and attraction, is not sex, which refers to physical biology. My sexual orientation is homosexual, because I am attracted to members of my own male sex (and my own male gender). Although I suppose an unproven case could be made for genetics being the determining factor in sexuality, this is uncertain enough to separate sexuality from biological sex.

My gender, the socio-psychological-spiritual identification aspect of the gender spectrum, is also heavily freighted toward male alignment for me, but again, gender is not sex. There are those of male sex and female gender, and vice versa, and a huge range in between and outside that spectrum.

Sex, sexuality, and gender are all entirely deserving protection in this civil rights employment law, but it is reductive to consider them the same thing. I certainly applaud this decision to broaden the legal shield, but I hope more accurate specification will be forthcoming.

Reading "Prophet"

A reading of my poem "Prophet" from the book Render, against a backdrop of film noir, government educational movies, and gay-panic PSA collage. Originally created for the Creative Pois-On series #CreativityWillSaveUs, episode 10.

Here's my video:

Here's the whole Creative Pois-On episode 10, which is definitely worth a watch!

Render is available in paperback and Kindle editions at Brighten Press.

Reading "Merge"

New video up on YouTube: reading my poem "Merge" from the poetry book Catfish and After, surrounded by video collage of nostalgic childhood moments from the 1980s, family wishes from the 1960s, parading elephants, a clown, American traditions, military iconography, and hot men exercising. The lines of poetry are included in the video.

Catfish and After is available in Kindle and paperback editions from Brighten Press.

"Catfish" Reading Video

I was invited by the lovely Bill Arning to give a poetry reading at the Flatland gallery tonight, but of course that has been postponed as we all virally die and the world ends. But I thought I might as well record the long poem I was intending to read anyway, as we’ve all gone virtual as it is.

I’ll be reading the poem Catfish, from my poetry book Catfish and After, Brighten Press. 2019. I began it when I was in the throes of falling in love with a gorgeous, smart, funny, deaf architect on the chat app Grindr. We had been chatting for a month non-stop daily, diving deep into one another, telling stories of our lives and sharing our hopes and terrors and depressions, connecting on a level I hadn’t experienced in nearly a decade. His pictures were sexy and stunning, with his deafness explaining his introversion and unwillingness to meet right away. It also seemed to explain his reluctance to tell me his last name or phone number.

But as I invested more in him emotionally over the coming weeks, it set off all kinds of alarms that I couldn’t find any trace of his existence online. The red flags flapped, but he was so consistent in his stories and personality that I couldn’t imagine he wasn’t who he said he was. I’m an insightful storyteller, with a powerful bullshit detector. I couldn’t possibly be deceived to such an extent. As I panicked and churned with emotion, I began to write about it, and the raw material for this poem spilled out over the coming weeks.

After I learned the truth, after I recovered, after I wrote the poetry cycle After, I cut and honed this cyberfraud material to pare it down to the poem I’m going to read right now.

This is Catfish, from Catfish and After, by Gene Hult.

Available in paperback and Kindle editions at brightenpress.com.

Catfish and After -- paperback copies!

I received my first batch of paperback copies of my new poetry book Catfish and After today, and I'm pleased with the way they look. It's available at brightenpress.com.

Catfish and After Memes

I can't prove anything he says.

Some cyber-psychos deliberately deceive. Catfish is a long poem about being in love with an ideal but fraudulent man on the chat app Grindr. After is an Imagist cycle of poetry about psychic, creative, and romantic reconstruction in the aftermath.

I'll be posting Catfish and After poetry memes here as I make them.

Catfish and After by Gene Hult is available in paperback and Kindle editions from Brighten Press.

New Poetry Book! CATFISH AND AFTER

In the throes of an exciting but bewildering love affair conducted entirely in intense, constant text with a sexy and smart deaf architect on the chat app Grindr, I started writing poetry about it when he repeatedly refused to meet. Following months of increasingly fraught but non-stop conversation, he ghosted me entirely, and I couldn't find him anywhere. I couldn't confirm a single thing he'd told me. When he finally returned, it was with a story stranger and more disappointing, more heartbreaking, than anything I'd feared. I had been catfished by a fraud.

Those months of poems were whittled down to form the 30-page long poem Catfish. 

In the aftermath, I kept writing, detailing the psychic, emotional, creative, and romantic reconstruction in the wake of that shock of dashed hopes. Those separate poems are collected in the cycle After.

Now available in Kindle and paperback editions from Brighten Press: Catfish and After.

Render Is FREE on Kindle until 9/28!

As a friendly reminder, you can get a Kindle copy of my poetry book Render for free until 9/28.

Thematically, it's about how the stories we choose to believe create our reality, and how we tell those stories to navigate both the good and bad aspects of love relationships.

Please visit brightenpress.com for more information.

from "Lascaux"

Render, poems of love and manifestation by Gene Hult.

Please visit brightenpress.com for more information.

from "Early AM Mysteries" again

Render, poems. Please visit brightenpress.com for more information.

Reading Render is Sexy

Render, poems of love and manifestation, available in Kindle and paperback at brightenpress.com.

from "Kindness"

Render, poems of manifestation and love, available at brightenpress.com.

from "Sea Stack"

I'd like to meet you, too.

Read Render.

Poems of manifestation by Gene Hult, from Brighten Press.

Available in Kindle or paperback editions.

from "Abstraction"

Excerpt from "Abstraction," Render, by Gene Hult, from Brighten Press.

Read the full version now.

Paperback

Kindle

Or visit brightenpress.com for more information.

from "Hole in the Wall"

Excerpt from "Hole in the Wall," Render.

Read the full version now.

Paperback

Kindle

Or visit brightenpress.com for more information.

Render, Poems of Manifestation, Available Now

Read Render now.

Paperback

Kindle

Or visit brightenpress.com for more information.

Render: Poetry Book Available Now in Paperback and Kindle

My debut collection of poetry, Render, is now available in Kindle and paperback editions from Brighten Press.

Please visit brightenpress.com for more information.

Or buy it directly from Amazon:

Render paperback

Render Kindle

Thanks!

Render Kindle Edition Now Available for Pre-order!

I'm thrilled to announce that the Kindle edition of Render, my first poetry collection, is now available for pre-order. It will be delivered July 12, 2018.

Paperback and iBooks editions are coming very soon!

A teaser from "Early AM Mysteries":

Nothing remains to believe
except the possibility of belief—
lessening the definition of hope
into nothing more substantial
than bones and skin and
the terror of daybreak.

In the silence of the overnight,
the refrigerator’s sudden buzzing
is a muted alarm, a warning cry
of omen and portent as I leap
from futon to coffee table to loveseat,
afraid of the ravenous piranhas
lurking beneath the surface
of the gray industrial carpeting.

I am tired
of proclamations of doom.

The damp cold is an uninvited guest
boring me with oft-repeated tales
of miseries more dire than my own.

My constant self-imposed solitude
has bewildered the boundaries
of the real and the actual,
like this snowy mountain peak
I hold in the palm of my hand.



The full version of this poem is included in the Kindle edition of Render.

Thanks!
Gene

Render

The diamond firebird—ashes he stirs.

Hear me keening for understanding,
my love? Wait, not yet, while I paint
another sequined scrim of myself.


My first book of poetry, Render, will be available from Brighten Press in paperback, Kindle, and iBook editions on July 12, 2018.

To say I'm excited about this would be an incredible understatement.

I'm calling these "poems of manifestation" because they include themes of creativity, creation, self-actualization, and identity, as well as summoning love into one's life.

These poems span nearly 30 years of writing.

I hope they will be as meaningful to you as they are to me.

Please check out genehult.com or brightenpress.com for more information.