What Is Gymniad?

The title comes from the Greek word "gymnós," meaning "naked." It is a series of poems in which I express my thoughts and feelings about nudity, which is very important to me.

I believe that nudity is a human right, and a crucially important one. Without body freedom, how free can we really be? As in the cases of other human rights, it seems to me that there is a control issue involved. Gymniad explores this and other aspects of our natural nakedness.

If you are offended by natural nudity, please skip over the Gymniad poems. If you are not, please join me in exploring one of the greatest joys of human life.

I Have a Community

I have a community
of readers.
Some I know,
most I don't.
They're in many countries,
some that I've only heard of.
They speak many languages,
but they are good
at understanding mine,
at understanding me.
We may not always agree,
but we are
family,
a scattered,
human family.

There was a phrase that I wanted to use in a poem, but my hands were in dishwater and I didn't stop to write it down. Now the dishes are clean, and the phrase and the poem are gone. Next time, the dishes can go to hell. Had I been Lord Byron, I'd have had a domestic for such chores. But then, I'd have had a club foot as well. Had I been Bobby Burns, I'd have been too drunk to do the fucking dishes, but I'd have been pissing poems and songs, still loved centuries later. Had I been Coleridge, my memory would have sufficed. And you can bet that my Irish grandmother, for whom poetry was a survival skill, would have remembered those lines.

Gymniad VIII (con traducción)

There is no part of the body
that is obscene.
It is all holy,
it is all blessed.
It is all natural,
whether at work
or at rest.

We must outgrow the lies
that sought
to control us,
if we are to have
a better future.

No hay parte del cuerpo
que sea obscena.
Es todo santo,
es todo bendecido.
Es todo natural,
sea en trabajo
o en descanso.

Tenemos que ser ya grande
para las mentiras
que querían controlarnos,
si vamos a tener
un futuro mejor.

Esta é terra nova

[portunhol surenho]

Esta é terra nova
mas eu soy anticuado
e sempre digo gracias
en vez de obrigado.

¿Qué hemos aprendido?

¿Qué hemos aprendido,
después de tantos siglos,
contados por los cientos?
Que es mejor no orinar
contra el viento.

Mas a un tiempo hemos llegado
en que tenemos que olvidar
muchas lecciones del pasado


What have we learned,
after so many centuries,
counted by the hundreds?
That it's better not to piss
against the wind.

But we've come to a time
in which we must forget
many lessons of the past.

Gymniad VII

Living in my skin,
this 75-year-old skin,
brings me closer to life
and its mysteries.
Have their been
other skins?
Will I begin
again?
To what am I kin,
if not the ocean,
and the stars?