Holy Erotica; a little collection of love poems
I first discovered the work of beat poet, Lenore Kandel, a few years ago, whilst I was also delving into the history of Indian love poetry.
Although distant in time, language, and underpinning philosophies, both provoked a wilding grandeur in my own literary and poetic style.
All the while, this accompanied my studies in Tantra and a yearning to express my sexuality with a suitable irreverent, bombastic flare. I mean all of that in a positive way.
It was an odd dichotomy I found within myself. On the one hand, I wanted to liberate Tantra from its stereotypical shackles of sex-magic as seen in the West, and on the other hand, I wanted to untangle it from the pitfalls of black magic, as understood by traditional Hinduism.
Tantra, comfortably being both extremes - yet also more than that – celebrates itself as impossible. Perhaps they can never be separated from these pigeon-holes. And perhaps that’s fine, striking curiosity in the most innocent of minds into its unravelling, magnanimous world.
Love Consummate certainly seemed to play with these conventions.
I tangoed with the constituents of sex and darkness, insomuch as some of these poems are rather self-serving. There is a lusty selfishness that is explicit within the blood and bones of the words.
And if you wanted to get moralistic about sex, you might deem the work as lewd or vulgar.
However, I declare this collection of Holy Erotica (a term I owe to Lenore) as one that invokes gods and embraces sex as a divine act of ultimate union. It is yogic to its core.
I believe this lends itself towards the “lighter” right-hand path that I am accustomed to. Even with its taboo content of selfish means.
The need to be satisfied is a thirst.
Anyhow, it seemed fitting that my writing should frenzy a flamboyant spark. There was a distinct departure from any subtlety or stoicism that I am usually partial to. Love Consummate is overt, forceful, and sometimes even literal.
Buy Digital & Hard Copies
Digital downloads of the poetry zine are always available on my Itch account. Here, you can also find other downloadable projects that I have spent time loving and creating. Explore me!
The self-published first edition of the hard copies have now been sent out.
So far, the poems have been shared aloud at poetry groups, and one particular poem has even been dedicated to Hecate in ritual and prayer.
Their lives out in the world are supremely cooler than I had ever imagined for them. Thank you for giving them the experience to breathe without me.
The products themselves turned out much more bookish and less ‘ziney’ than intended. Which was cool. However, the second editions will now most likely be printed in this zine style as I feel that it matches the glitchy imagery.
All the artwork is taken from examples of Hindu miniature painting and Hindu sculpture, erotic or suggestive in nature. The colours have been inverted and glitched in a hodgepodge manner in keeping with cheap, contemporary zine aesthetics.
It was deliberately something I wanted to emphasise. Once upon a time, esoteric or occult literature became so suppressed, it was distributed between spaces on quiet bookshelves, snuck in boxes and pressed betwixt the pages of unassuming novels in the form of pamphlets and zines. I wanted Love Consummate to be a shout-out to this covert tradition.
Also, in keeping with this, I thought the humble zine to be the perfect hearkening to Lenore Kandel’s ‘The Love Book’. Banned and beloved, there would be no Love Consummate without it.
If you would like to join the waitlist for the second edition, send me an email:
I don't bite much.