540 CLUB.

Photos by Matt Phillips

540 CLUB

$40 CLUB

CARTON OND

CANTON ON

Following seven years of operation at the 300-04 Club in Canton, owner Larry Loveless moved to the 540 Club at 540 Walnut Ave. NE. The Grand Opening was held June 27, three months after the new bar began operation. The 540 has three major areas. A twentyseven foot antique bar serves as the focal point of one room. The pool table and pinball machine are in an adjoining room, while the back room is for dancing.

540

540 CLUB CANTON ON

CLUB

HIGH GEAR/JULY 1977

GAY POETRY

2

Periods of great artistic achievement uniformly

paralleled ages of comparative enlightement. Believe it or not, like it or not, THE GREATEST AETHETIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS ARE EXEMPLIFIED BY HOMOSEXUAL ART. Ithphallic Egyptian gods can be found on the pillars of the Great Sanctuary at Karnak. Solomon's Temple, the greatest Hebrew architecural structure, was accompanied by the composition of the Psalms, the most significant monuments of classical Hebrew literature (the bulk of them endyted by bisexual King David, though non-secular are highly patriphilic.)

The finest Greek sculpture and architecture (epitomized by the Parthenon) vividly showcased homoeroticism. The Italian Rennaisance (and subsequent European classicism) was dominated by homosexuals Boticelli, Da Vinci and Michelangelo. The German "Klassik" was presided over by Goethe and Schiller, and finally, gay Shakespeare remains the diadem of English writ.

What is remarkable is not that the greatest poetry was written by people who were predominantly gay, but that they rather courageously revealed the fact in their works. The habitual "bohemian" isolation of artistic communities has permit-

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ted lyrical poetry to preserve a peculiar sort of impudence. This freedom has given rise to the extreme aesthetic subjectivity manifested by so-called "ivorytower" poets, but it also has afforded gay people an extraordinary pool of literature. This immense bank of crystallized homosexual inspiration is rich, dynamic, innovative, profound and generally superlative!

Like American blacks whose history has been obscured until the recent advent of black studies, gay people (including black gays) have systematically been made unaware of their enormous cultural heritage. Due to the obscene repression of homophile art, many contemporary gays perceive Bette Midler, David Bowie and a handful of drag personae as the sum total of gay culture!

In an effort to counter the high-school and college "straightening out" of our artistic heroines and heroes, this month's High Gear is presenting Part II of Gay Poetry, a minianthology of poems by famous homosexuals, addressed to or inspired by intimate individuals of the same gender:

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