Annus Mirabilis
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) –
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.Up to then there’d only been
A sort of bargaining,
A wrangle for the ring,
A shame that started at sixteen
And spread to everything.Then all at once the quarrel sank:
Everyone felt the same,
And every life became
A brilliant breaking of the bank,
A quite unlosable game.So life was never better than
In nineteen sixty-three
(Though just too late for me) –
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.
Here’s Tom O’Bedlam reading Annus Mirabilis:
ORDERS: Find out what he’s talking about. What happened in 1963? Critical clue: he’s British, so it’s the thing that happened in the UK in 1963… US, Canadian etc. dates slightly different…
And then ponder—when sex isn’t about reproduction… what is it about? What is its purpose? And what do we do to it to constrain it anyway?
m jane colette 