hard is the world that does not give to every love a place

two young men, entangled, vintage, gay

Thy voice, as tender as the light
That shivers low at eve -
Thy hair, where myriad flashes bright
Do in and outward weave -
Thy charms in their diversity
Half frighten and astonish me.

Thine eyes, that hold a mirth subdued
Like deep pools scattering fire -
Mine dare not meet them in their mood,
For fear of my desire,
Lest thou that secret do descry
Which evermore I must deny.

Hard is the world that does not give
To every love a place;
Hard is the power that bids us live
A life bereft of grace -
Hard, hard to lose thy figure, dear,
My star and my religion here!

 

Text: To a Friend, James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
Image: photographer, sitters, unknown,
Daguerreotype circa 1850, via The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

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Published:
January 15, 2012 – 3:52 pm
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By Kenneth Hill
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we live in boundless brotherhood

vintage gay photo, one man sat on the other's lap

Sweet lad, tender lad,

Have no shame, you’re mine for good;

We share a sole insurgent fire,

We live in boundless brotherhood.


I do not fear the gibes of men;

One being split in two we dwell,

The kernel of a double nut

Embedded in a single shell.

 
 
 

Text: Imitation of the Arabic, by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, 1835
Translation: Michael Green
Image: Photographer, sitters, unknown; via deak/ipernity

 

 

 

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November 28, 2011 – 12:20 am
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By Kenneth Hill
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memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours

 

vintage gay lovers snuggling

  

vintage gay snuggle lover 1

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…

In life after life, in age after age, forever.

My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,

That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,

In life after life, in age after age, forever.

 

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, its age old pain,vintage gay snuggle lover 2

Its ancient tale of being apart or together.

As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,

Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time.

You become an image of what is remembered forever.

 

vintage gay snuggle loversYou and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.

At the heart of time, love of one for another.

We have played along side millions of lovers,

Shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting,

the distressful tears of farewell,

Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

 

Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you

The love of all man’s days both past and forever:

Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.

The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours -

And the songs of every poet past and forever.

 

Text: Unending Love, by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Translated by William Radice
Image: Photographer, sitters, unknown, via morphadite/tumblr

 

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November 19, 2011 – 3:03 pm
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By Kenneth Hill
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I don’t want to fall another moment into your gravity

vintage photo of gay soldiers

Click to Click to listen to male vocal:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Dear Peter,

Something always brings me back to you. It never takes too long. No matter what I say or do, I’ll still feel you here ’til the moment I’m gone. You hold me without touch, keep me without chains. I never wanted anything so much than to drown in your love and not feel your rain.

Set me free, leave me be. I don’t want to fall another moment into your gravity. Here I am, and I stand so tall, just the way I’m supposed to be — but you’re on to me, and all over me.

You loved me ’cause I’m fragile — when I thought that I was strong. But you touch me for a little while and all my fragile strength is gone. I live here on my knees as I try to make you see that you’re everything I think I need here on the ground. But you’re neither friend nor foe, though I can’t seem to let you go.

The one thing that I still know is that you’re keeping me down. You’re on to me, on to me, and all over

…Something always brings me back to you. It never takes too long.

Monty



Image: Photographer, sitters, unknown
Vocal: Brent Wilson
Text: Song lyrics, Gravity, by Sarah Bareilles,
imagined here as a letter from one lover to another

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Published:
October 9, 2011 – 3:10 pm
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By Kenneth Hill
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in love in provincetown, 1936

Two men embrace, provincetown 1936, vintage, gay

You have returned. You have returned, my joy:

you have returned as polar morning comes

after a whole night winter. Throb the drums,

– yes beat my blood to greet my darling boy.

My heart with wild delight shall now employ

both tongue and pen to reckon up the sums

of all my gladness. Pleasure almost numbs

my reason. I am shaken like a toy.

Like sunlight after a storm, like flowers from ice,

yes, like a torch lit in oblivion

you have returned, and heaven bursts above.

No music mad enough shall suffice.

My heart shall paean like a clarion.

I am the bugle for the mouth of love.

 

Text: #19,  from Carmina Amico (1932), by Edwards James
Image: photographer, subjects, unknown 

 

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Published:
August 20, 2011 – 11:13 am
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By Kenneth Hill
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rudolf brazda dies, last known survivor of gay persecution in holocaust

RIP Rudolf Brazda.

Rudolf Brazda

BERLIN — Rudolf Brazda, believed to be the last surviving person who was sent to a Nazi concentration camp because of his homosexuality, has died, a German gay rights group said Thursday. He was 98.
more from the washington post

 

‘I Had Always Been Blessed with Good Fortune’
An inspiring profile on Brazda, about whom a book was published this year.
see: spiegel online

Rudolf Brazda

 

Rudolf Brazda

 

Never forget

Pink triangle, gay holocaust, nazi persecution

 

At age 96, Rudolf Brazda speaks out to tell his story.





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Published:
August 4, 2011 – 7:32 pm
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By Kenneth Hill
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in his bright blue eyes, his happy spirit sits and smiles

two soldiers on love, vintage gay, older + younger













i love this boy, not for his beauty only,

but just because my life that was so lonely

knows in his presence some strange healing power,

an unfamiliar peace — as if each hour

should pause a little in its swift-winged flight

and breathe a benediction. in his bright

blue eyes his happy spirit sits and smiles,

and never evil dreams, or wanton wiles,

or lusts o’ercloud their sweet serenity:

i dare not hope — but, when he looks at me,

something half-shy, half-trusting, leaps therein

and shadows of dead passion and old sin

all dreadful haunting memories, take flight –

you think i’m happy? well — perhaps you’re right!

 


image: photographer, subjects unknown
text: excerpt, ‘the beautiful,’ by f.s. woodley, (1888-1957)

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Published:
July 20, 2011 – 7:44 pm
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By Kenneth Hill
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romeo and romeo

Two men lying on a boat, vintage gay

 

By whose direction found’st thou out this place?

 

By love, who first did prompt me to inquire;
He lent me counsel and I lent him eyes.
I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far
As that vast shore wash’d with the farthest sea,
I would adventure for such merchandise.

 

…I wish but for the thing I have:
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

 

Image: Photographer, subjects, unknown
Text: William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet,
Act II, Scene ii,  c. 1591-1595

 

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July 3, 2011 – 11:58 am
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By Kenneth Hill
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i do, i do

In celebration of the historic vote on 24 June, 2011 in which
New York lawmakers legalized same-sex marriage.


i do

One man seated on the lap of another; vintage gay photo, gay marriage

 

what greater thing is there for two human souls

than to feel that they are joined together

to strengthen each other in all labour,

to minister to each other in all sorrow,

to share with each other in all gladness,

to be one with each other in the

silent unspoken memories.

i do

One woman seated on the lap of another; vintage lesbian photo, gay marriage

 

Text: excerpt from ‘Adam Bede’ by George Eliot, c. 1859
Image of men: photographer, sitters, unknown c. 1900
Image of women: Glass plate negative, sitters unknown,
photographer possibly Arthur Phillips, Australia, c. 1910
Powerhouse Museum collection

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Published:
June 25, 2011 – 6:35 pm
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By Kenneth Hill
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always be with me and always look this glad to see me

men kissing, vintage photo, gay, soldiers, military

Never thought this was possible, this tug-tug-tugging of the heart. A face I didn’t want to take my eyes from. That face can never, will never leave me. A face to light up my own. My piece of treasure. A nail to pierce the hands and feet. Always be with me, I thought to myself. Always be with me and always look this glad to see me.

 

Text: excerpt, London Triptych, Jonathan Kemp
Image: Photographer, subjects, unknown, c. 1940s

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Published:
June 11, 2011 – 11:18 pm
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By Kenneth Hill
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