POETRY
So You Like Dante by Richard Hell

Dante and Beatrice didn't have this, did they:

penis, tongue, and fingers piercing

clinging rings of muscle lips? I do,

I want to kill you

with it so you'll want it

always. Thus I hope

to compose concerning you

what has never been written

in rhyme of any woman.

You're sitting on the chair

and I fuck you there.

I fuck you in the mouth,

I fuck you in the ass.

I pull on my cock while I stare in your eyes.

"Ass" and "eyes" are a very good rhyme.


Excerpted from Hot and Cold, published by powerHouse Books. Visit www.richardhell.com



Photograph from Katrina del Mar's Nerve gallery, Restraint Be Damned




©2002

Richard Hell and Nerve.com

Commentarium (11 Comments)

Jun 29 02 - 11:21am
MM

that poem sucked.
just because you use words like ass and penis and fuck does not make you any where near comparable with Dante.
He and Beatrice did not have that. you're right.
They had LOVE.
He went through hell and purgatory to find her only to have her scorn him.

wait, have you ever actually *read* the divine comedy?

never mind.
just... yeah, your poem was pretty lame.
and that thing with the rhyme? it's like saying at for the last line of a haiku, "this is a haiku." lame.

Jun 30 02 - 2:37pm
mean

Is this the same Richard Hell, as in Richard Hell and the Voidoids? Geez, he's on Nerve, I remember him in the 1970's punk scene in NYC (I am showing my age here). One of the most unheralded punk rockers of his generation. A cut below Patti Smith and the Ramones, but still, he could be mentioned in the same breath as them. Can anyone confirm this for me?

Jul 01 02 - 10:51am
mcg

Du-udes! Richard Hell RAWKS;}

Jul 02 02 - 3:01pm
mm.

yeah he's right, read the poem. that's a really nice print though, did you shoot it.

Jul 06 02 - 4:11pm
HG

Perhaps "Dante" is in point of truth just a skank fuck-buddy from Hell's portfolio and not Aligheri at all.

Jul 24 02 - 9:09pm
NL

That was mabey the WORST poem I ever read. YOU SUCK. :(

Oct 22 02 - 4:14pm
L

THAT SUCKED LITERALLY.

Nov 09 02 - 5:59am

hiiiiiii sweeteeee
i like u....
pleaze write me back...

Nov 13 02 - 2:51pm
ST

what in the hell is this shit? ok seriously, this is really passive aggressiveness to the Nth power.

Nov 14 02 - 8:27pm
RE

For all those who said "this poem sucked' 1st of all you suck! This is a real poem. Its powerful, its honest and it says what's true(not to mention) in a sonnet form!What do you minor critics read anyways.."Rod McKeon?"

Apr 28 03 - 12:10am
MG

I admit to liking the coldness.

Now you say something

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