A Porn Star Looks At Her Life

[vagantes]

"I hate the word 'milf'. After all I am a mother".
"Can we hurry up and have sex, please,
My daughter will be home from school".
The bed's creaking too much for the sound engineer;
That light's in my eyes, and I can smell the cameraman's breath.
It's formulaic- all these noises and grunts
Even my sweat is artificial.
"Open your legs wider, Michelle, so we can get a good shot".
If he gets any closer with that lens it'll be ridiculous.

Do you think of me, as I think of you?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I was, of course, drawn to this poem purely because of the title. I'm not sure I get it though. Is there a particular message here? Are you displeased with how most current poem is directed? And the final line, "Do you think of me, as I think of you?" is out of place, and seems a forced attempt to make the reader think there's something deep here. Plus, the language just doesn't seem that poetic.

[vagantes]

One of the purposes of poetry is to suggest (simply) different ways of looking at something.

1. What's so interesting/ disquieting about pornstars looking at life? If they were a mother would they not be displeased at the acronym "milf"? Would it not jar to be thinking about your daughter coming home from school while you were being paid to have sex?

2. Should a description of sexual activity for money be made poetic? What is poetic?

3. Why is it important for there to be a message?

4. The last line is, of course, a quotation from LEL through Barrett Browning. Landon was a great beauty who had a scandalous life and death. Perhaps she is the porn star in the poem.

[Little Gal]

I loved the poem...
I love what she has to say and I can feel the truth of the pain that she places casually and almost insignificantly wherein lies the emphasis....
I totally agree to the entire of it and your thoughts regarding it...
you took up something like this to write about is itself a rare and good thing...
well done... :)

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

One of the purposes of poetry is to suggest (simply) different ways of looking at something.

1. What's so interesting/ disquieting about pornstars looking at life? If they were a mother would they not be displeased at the acronym "milf"? Would it not jar to be thinking about your daughter coming home from school while you were being paid to have sex?

2. Should a description of sexual activity for money be made poetic? What is poetic?

3. Why is it important for there to be a message?

4. The last line is, of course, a quotation from LEL through Barrett Browning. Landon was a great beauty who had a scandalous life and death. Perhaps she is the porn star in the poem.
First looking at my first post, my autocorrect screwed me. The third sentence should have read, "Are you displeased with how current porn is directed?"

1. "What's so interesting/ disquieting about pornstars looking at life?"

I don't know. You wrote the poem. It didn't seem particularly interesting or disquieting to me.

"If they were a mother would they not be displeased at the acronym 'milf'?"

Seeing as they're porn stars, being a MILF would seem to me to be a desirable thing.

Would it not jar to be thinking about your daughter coming home from school while you were being paid to have sex?

I don't see why it would. This person is a porn star after all . . . it's not as if being paid to have sex is something out of the ordinary.

2. Well, if it's a poem, I say that, yes, it should be poetic. I'm not going to give some convoluted definition of what I find poetic--it's different for everyone--but I just didn't find the language interesting.

3. A poem doesn't necessarily have to have a message, but it has to have something, no? I didn't find much aesthetic beauty in the writing, so I looked for a message and couldn't find one. I thought maybe I was missing something.

4. Of course! How stupid of me. :rolleyes:

[Delta40]

She is compartmentalizing the roles which make up her life. There is two forms of exposure here - one for which she is paid, the other which terrifies her.

[Jerrybaldy]

it is automatically interesting in its subject matter. Sex always sells. It is more of a very short story than a poem but I did enjoy it and liked how you turned on the voyeur.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

She is compartmentalizing the roles which make up her life. There is two forms of exposure here - one for which she is paid, the other which terrifies her.

Wait . . . vagantes is an actual porn star?

[JuniperWoolf]

It's very morally superior. It depicts the lives of pornstars as pathetic and degrading. I've met porn actors and actresses (my boyfriend's an aspiring film director from Vancouver, don't ask) and the ones I've met are pretty normal. The majority of them are exhabitionists and they aren't ashamed of themselves. They also seem to be very aware and proud of their hotness, they don't feel gross about themselves by any means (nor should they). According to Dave's uncle's friend: "it beats the hell out of being a 9-5 office slave, and the pay is better too."

[vagantes]

The comments are based on actual remarks made by a friend of mine, who had been in the porn business for over 20 years, since she was 18.

She said she found it very disquieting being filmed, having sex with someone, while thinking about picking her daughter up from school. The two things somehow didn't fit together in her life, so she packed the business in.

The interest for me is to dispassionately comment through reporting, while undermining both the activity and the comment.

The quote from LEL is a sort of snivel from someone who became a celebrity through an exploitation of her beauty but should have been celebrated for her poetic talent, which I believe is Barrett Browning's take on the subject.

My poem should be read as series of comments on LEL through Barrett Browning etc,. And of course the comments on here are part of it as well.

After all most poetry is self-reflexive.

[Buh4Bee]

I think this is fantastic! I think the poem can stand on its own without an explanation.

[JuniperWoolf]

The comments are based on actual remarks made by a friend of mine, who had been in the porn business for over 20 years, since she was 18.

She said she found it very disquieting being filmed, having sex with someone, while thinking about picking her daughter up from school. The two things somehow didn't fit together in her life, so she packed the business in.

If she feels that way about it then she should, people who think like that would be better off in a normal job. I'm told that only a "special kind of person" can be in the porn business.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

If she feels that way about it then she should, people who think like that would be better off in a normal job. I'm told that only a "special kind of person" can be in the porn business.

A wonderfully special person, indeed.

[Jack of Hearts]

It's a fine point you're trying to carve out with a big hammer (which might actually be the name of someone in the business).








J