“Sweet Son of Pan”–erotic poetry

Healey, Trebor. “Sweet Son of Pan”, Suspect Thoughts Press, 2006.

Erotic Poetry

Amos Lassen

I first came into contact with the work of Trebor Healey by reading his first novel, “Through It Came Bright Colors”. I remarked then that his prose was poetic in quality and then sure enough he issues a volume of poetry, “Sweet Son of Pan”. This is a beautiful collection of erotic poems which are alive with feeling and emotion and they are raw and very hot. So much poetry has roots in eroticism that the amount of graphic images in Healey’s poem is not surprising. As Healey celebrates maleness and the magic of the male form, he expounds on the freedom to be who we want, sexually and otherwise.

This collection of erotic poems draws its being from the thoughts of gay men and is written as homage to sensuality. As we journey on the path we see our own selves, our unified own unified soul and we disregard time—time is eternal. The sanctity of peace brings about sexuality and to further enjoy that sexuality even more, Healey invites us to his sexual, poetic orgy where we lose ourselves in the beauty of words.

Pan, the demigod, born of a divine father and a mortal woman walks the line between the heavens and earth. If we give into him, we are raised to that place where the mundane and ugly and gross is separated from the aesthetic. It is our choice to beckon Pan and tell him that we are ready to join him and by doing so we “consummate our immortality”.

Healey obviously has surrendered to Pan and the results are these beautiful poems. When I say that the poems are erotic, I do not jest. Look at some of the titles, “The Star Spangled Boner”, “The Aristocracy of the Scrotum”, “Melchor’s Ass” and “Sex and Death”.

If you do not like poetry or you have never read poetry, Healey’s book is a great starting off place. The visions that are conjured by the poems are like photographs of the mind and the language wall linger on your heart and soul.

Check out Trebor’s poem in the new book about the Radical Faeries.