eros versus pornos?

I am not a pornographer. I do not like the industry. Call it pornography, adult entertainment or what you will. I have met many people in and on the fringes of the business and my opinion has not changed since day one: It is an exploitive business. For every "adult film star" who makes a fortune at it there are thousands of wannabes who never make it and the only money ever seen is in the pockets of the producers and publishers. I've always said that Hugh Hefner is a pimp, just a successful one. And, to me, "pimp" is not a compliment.

That having been said, I find myself having to defend my decision to publish a volume of my more nakedly (pun intended) erotic poems. I see a great chasm of difference between an erotic poem or story and a photo or film.

In the first case, I am not requiring a stand-in. No wannabe actress or actor has to pose or playact to deliver the images. I was once accused of exploitation for allowing a lingerie-clad image of my second wife to appear on a book cover, and I see that point, and I apologize for that. That it was her notion, her desire, and her belief that not only would the image help the sales but the legitimacy of having done a book cover would help launch a modeling career stuck in perpetual neutral. Was I wrong to go along? Probably.

But the contents of the new book is the real issue here. I recall several years ago having been invited to address a Christian Writers group, then having the invitation rescinded upon closer examination of the "kind of" poetry I write. I defy anyone to find me one work in my published catalog, even after the release of "101 GREAT EROTIC POEMS" that is more deliberate, direct or obvious in its sexuality than The Song of Solomon, a book in The Holy Bible. And certainly the image of sex I present is healthier than the average beer commercial. Hell, than the average soda commercial.

This is my final defense of this notion, that somehow sexuality is and of itself a bad thing. A close associate of mine the other day challenged the notion that "all things are from God" and stated that some are from Satan. I reject that, in totality. Only God created things, by means and processes only available to God. It is our corruption of those things created of God, perhaps under the influence of a satanic element (I think of "the devil" as God's prosecuting attorney, whose job it is to trip us up and prove us unworthy) that create evil.

In a perfect world, only married couples would have sex. Last time I checked, with us invading foreign countries in the name of peace, media tycoons getting rich encouraging an increased polarization and loss of real values, the ice caps melting, the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer and self-proclaimed ministers driving BMWs, I don't see a perfect world. I hope that my works are never abused or misused or misconstrued as supportive of a lifestyle or activity that is exploitive of others.

But I do plan to teach the world a thing or two about eroticism, this August. So help me, God. That's not an oath, but a request for moral support from the Divine in the contentious time to come.