The male orgasm has become the most common metaphor for male sexuality in Western literature. We describe men as being placed under increasing pressure, which defies description, is first experienced during puberty, and may or may not be pleasurable, until they eventually explode into an unpredictable mess, which may or may not have positive repurcussions. The same metaphor could be used to describe the works of James Lineberger. His poetry, with its suddenly graphic imagery, is powerful and explosive.
James says, "I could say I'm a janitor, and that would be true. I could say I've had a Broadway production, and that would be true. I could say that when I was ten years old our family lived within sight of a Duke Power Station but we had no power, and that would be true. I could say I spent fifteen years as a professional screenwriter, jobbing at all the major studios, and that would be true. I could say that time and circumstance have allowed me to become a fair-to-middling carpenter, and that would be true. I could say that all I really want now is to get it right a few times before I die, and I pray that this too will be true." His poems have appeared in Afternoon (where he also has a new play, WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED), Berkeley Poetry Review, The Centennial Review, Coal City Review, Djinni, Disquieting Muses, Duct Tape Press, Exquisite Corpse, Gangway, Hanging Loose, Hayden's Ferry Review, Mediphors, New York Quarterly, Ontario Review, Oxford Magazine, Pembroke Magazine, Poetry Now, Poetry SuperHighway, Prairie Schooner, Rag Mag, RealPoetik, Snake Nation Review, Sonora Review, 2River View, Wired Art for Wired Hearts, Mind Fire Poetry Journal, Morpo Review, King Log, Snakeskin, Absinthe, Stirring, Stagger and Verse. You can write to him at jdline@vnet.net.
James's works here at Unlikely Stories are:
| 2003: | |
| lucina | Your Mother Poem, the One You Said You Lost |
| a man's home |