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Joseph's criterion for what makes a poem "great"

Old Joseph thinks
that any piece of poetry      
about the joys of making love      
that sinks beneath his sense  
most Puritanical      
of whom it's right    
to mate with  will,    
upon his "greatness" scale,  
be wholly judged  
as one that cannot help  
but stink.      
   
But if his prudishness        
is ta’en t to be the measurement        
of literary quality,        
then we must say        
that the erotic compositions like        
“That Mouth” by Rich        
and Dickinson’s “Wild Nights”        
or Auden’s “the Platonic Blow’        
or Cummings’ xvii”        
Neruda’s “Every Day You Play”        
John Donne’s fine          
“To his Mistress          
Going to Bed”        
or anything that’s Lesbian        
in aim        
deserve the reject’s spike.
 
Written by Baldwin
Published | Edited 18th May 2021
Author's Note
What inspired this piece was J-Z's comment on my "I am religious" , namely,-

"It is a great poem if that person who has filled your bed is your wife."

See https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/419358-i-am-religious/

For a number of poems that Joseph would, on his logic, disdain and say were not "great" because the lover spoken of in these pieces is not the speaker's spouse see here:

https://www.scarymommy.com/sex-poems/
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